Speak
          only when
               you
               feel
         your words
               are
         better than
               the
            silence
               and
        understand
             that a
        relationship
              never
              dies a
        natural death...

              They
                are
         murdered
                 by
                Ego,
           Attitude  
                and
          Ignorance.
                                                                             Jon York   2019

Now I’m brunching
on weekends
Painting black bird wings
On my face
My hair spirals
Spirals
Spirals
Like my fear of the space
Between the face in the mirror
And the women in the catalogs
And yes
Yes
I’m getting closer now
To that ideal
I scribbled in ink
On notebook paper
When there were
Fewer lines on my face
I wait in lines
For the train
Wearing stilettos
Growing up tastes like
Black coffee and
Owning four mascaras
That all look the same
On my face
I take your hand
We look like
Your American dream

Dear Mother,
I promise
I'll spend
the rest of my days
protecting you
from the monsters
around you.

Dear Mother,
I promise
I'll take you
to the farthest place
you've ever known
in your entire life.

Dear Mother -
I am never
leaving you alone
in the clutches
of the Evil
anymore.

Oh, warm bed;
     most murderous depredator
of midnight reverie

Suffocator of thoughts,
Stifler of desires,
                desires for fervor
Sufficed by lukewarm
                                        blankets
    
“Frozen feet far take your mind!”

If these bedclothes
                       were not my socks, my coffin

every time
i think i'm over you
you smile
and i relapse.

Don’t wait for that perfect poem
  to appear

It lives in the seeds of your
  imperfection

Waiting for new furrows of wonder
  and strife
  
To flower in soil you have yet
  to plow

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)