Can the people around me
smell my f l e s h
(rotting?)
Are they afraid
of the d e a t h
(behind my eyes?)
I have been this way
for a long
long
time
but I will smile
as my lungs c o l l a p s e
May 24, 2015
May 24, 2015 at 12:15 AM UTC
one cigarette
then two
(or four)
every drag brings
another image
(of your face)
inhale
(crooked teeth smile)
*
exhale*
(rough stubble brushes blushing cheeks)
Your eyes are rich soil
(nourishing copper rings)
tell me about the thoughts
(who keep their roots there)
*inhale
*
(kisses like familiar embraces)
exhale
(no danger in soft hands)
Mar 5, 2015
Mar 5, 2015 at 11:56 PM UTC
I’ve had a chill in my bones
since the day I learned
how fragile a heart is
and I am
so
scared
because the ice
that protects me is thawing
and the lake is deep.
What if we drown
trying to skate over it?
Mar 5, 2015
Mar 5, 2015 at 11:48 PM UTC
She grows her hair out
in hopes that it will anchor her
(to the earth)
earth that she so desperately
wishes to become part of
She stretches her arms to a sky
(sky she will never touch)
She watches clocks
(tick)
and she watches lives end
before they ever began
She will dig herself into fertile soil
to become beautiful
as the flowers that grow there
Jan 12, 2015
Jan 12, 2015 at 12:25 PM UTC
The spring air is sweet
bare feet touch concrete
and a breeze tickles
spring-loaded curls.
The newly painted porch swing
is urged faster as I urge
another story,
anything you can bring
to memory.
We watch the sun
set fire to the sky
violent reds and deep purples
warn of the imminent twilight.
We rock gently
and Mother moon makes her way
into star dotted sea,
suspended above us
breeze turns to chill
settled in my bones.
I retreat to your arms
my lips tremble confessions
but you sooth my tears with your own.
“All is forgiven, we’ll start again.”
Now I chip peeling pain
and watch angry storm clouds sail
like ships on the black sea
to smother Mother moon
those words ring clear as I tend wounds
inflicted by you.
As I try to forgive,
I wonder if you’ll remember
so you can forget.
-vns
Dec 27, 2014
Dec 27, 2014 at 11:18 PM UTC
i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones,and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the,shocking fuzz
of your electric furr,and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh….And eyes big love-crumbs,
and possibly i like the thrill
of under me you so quite new
Dec 16, 2014
Dec 16, 2014 at 11:26 AM UTC
do not smile at strangers
do not smile at strangers
**** the difference
we are not safe
when the strangers are here
what if they take
our jobs
our homes
our children
give me your tired
so I can work them harder
give me your poor
so i can make them poorer
give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
so I can choke the sparks from their eyes
do not smile at strangers
do not smile at the others
**** the different
our way of life is not safe
when the others are here
what if they take
our money
our power
our class
give me your fear
so i can give you violence
give me your grief
so i can give you my silence
give me your allegiance
so i can give you liberty and justice for some
Dec 16, 2014
Dec 16, 2014 at 11:17 AM UTC
This is what I vow;
He shall have my heart to keep,
Sweetly will we stir and sleep,
All the years, as now.
Swift the measured sands may run;
Love like this is never done;
He and I are welded one:
This is what I vow.
This is what I pray:
Keep him by me tenderly;
Keep him sweet in pride of me,
Ever and a day;
Keep me from the old distress;
Let me, for our happiness,
Be the one to love the less:
This is what I pray.
This is what I know:
Lovers' oaths are thin as rain;
Love's a harbinger of pain--
Would it were not so!
Ever is my heart a-thirst,
Ever is my love accurst;
He is neither last nor first:
This is what I know.
Dec 14, 2014
Dec 14, 2014 at 8:54 PM UTC
I made a terrible mistake.
When I noticed
the different ways you smile,
or the times your voice softens when you speak.
I was a lost cause after that.
Dec 14, 2014
Dec 14, 2014 at 8:33 PM UTC
Memories make you uncomfortable
but they wrap themselves around me
So when I tell you stories
about Sunday mornings or Christmas trees
Please listen
to the tears I hold back
And I know it isn’t healthy to look back
Like a sweater you outgrew making you uncomfortable
But please listen
To the words tumbling from me
Like leaves falling from dying trees
Because all I have left are stories
And I scream them from skyline stories
I cannot hold them back
They take root in my brain like great trees
The branches spring from my throat uncomfortable
I must remove them from me
Please just listen
Because I’ve been distanced so just listen
These aren’t the stories
I wanted to weigh on me
But I’m back
to being uncomfortable
in my own skin. Scratching like bark from trees
Do you remember the front yard? Decorated by trees
They sing in the wind if you listen
The sound would make me uncomfortable
Because of all the old stories
Of skeletons hung back
But you lit candles and wrapped rainbows around me
So forgive me
If I cry for skinned knees from falling down trees
that healed awhile back
And you don’t have to listen
If these stories
make you uncomfortable.
I’m uncomfortable
with the stories
being rewritten. So you don’t have to listen
Dec 14, 2014
Dec 14, 2014 at 5:30 PM UTC