Tango on a tightrope
Argentine Cross vibrating the line
like the strings of a Latin guitar
playing our song
only a spider’s web for a net
if we fall

Waltz on a wall top thirty stories high
our story tops them all
traffic below doesn’t even see
top hat and tails, silk gown
cocktails in our hands
Fred and Ginger sit it out to watch

Rumba on a rope bridge
hips sway in time
with the windblown span
gliding past missing boards
waterfall below shouts up to us
can’t make out what it says

Paso Doble on a plane
faux bullfight on a wing
Matador and his scarlet cape
pose and sweep
turbulence tilts the dance floor
ten thousand feet to the ground

Quickstep in the quicksand
feet so light in rapid step
no time to sink
flow across the surface
to syncopated beats
shoes left stuck to the floor

steps we mastered long ago

now we glissade and sweep
only to the rhythm of us
most challenging of all dances
and most natural of movements
always in step
dancing on the edge of our hearts

I no longer measure time in minutes, hours, days
I now measure by with you or not with you

How do I go
When my absence melts you
How do I turn away
When I am immersed in you

What else can I see
If you are all my vision
What can draw my mind
If you are each thought

Are you truly alone
While you are surrounded by fears
Are you left without voice
While you scream in silence

Is there a limit to my rekindlings
As I extinguish with each last look
Is it possible to breathe
As lungs fill with endless calls to you

At what point could there be too much us
Though there is never enough
At what point is pain exhausted
Though the void of apart is limitless

Where is the end of empty
Can it be found when we are cleft
Where do we cease to touch
Can we be disjoined at any point

Why do we bleed with stilled hearts
Must away be bottomless
Will actuality ever come right
Do we survive, or die trying

Leaving work I realized I had forgotten something
I turned back for it and headed up the stairs
I met a coworker coming down as I went up
He smiled and said “Hey, you’re going the wrong way”
As we passed on the stairs I said
“You have condensed my life into one sentence”

rigor eros braids our fingers together
sealing our hands, palm crushed to palm
inhaling your breath as you exhale mine
ravenous eyes devour all before them
rhapsody reverberates from hearts and walls

never ending thirst drives us always on
draining the sweet, deep red cup of libido
with fever induced voluptuous draughts
driven beyond the delirium of voracity
we ricochet off boundaries of carnality

lungs heated to ignition by bodies racing
to keep pace with limitless appetence
minds consumed by hearts desire
insensate to wounded and broken flesh
love’s voice shouts in deafening collision

time coils around consummation’s aura seeking us
we are hidden between a kiss and apogee
unchained from the somatic world
locked together in amaranthine embrace
ecstasy overwhelms mortality

A creature not of here or there
With parts that do not fit
Neither fish nor fowl, horse or bear
A bashed together kit

Too many heads, some with horns
Body furred and scaled
Eagles wings and spines like thorns
And as a peacock tailed

Some aspects might bring a smile
While others will repel
One small detail may beguile
Yet another breaks the spell

Each pack or flock it tries to join
Though they seemed akin
And in some facet quite adroit
Another portion can’t fit in

Every time it tries as best it may
To hide an offending section
Knowing that if seen in light of day
The result will be rejection

So the beast remains an alien
Cloaks what's best concealed
Strives to imitate the chameleon
That no misshape be revealed

All creatures hunger for a home
Chimera hungers too
But it wanders doomed to roam
A haven to pursue

Some want to redistribute wealth
Perhaps instead we should redistribute love
Then wealth would redistribute itself

On Hallow’s Eve I bent my knee
Asked her to be my bride
I hoped her heart beat just for me
That love would be her guide

She said “It’s true I love you,
But there is something you must know
Of quirks and twists I have a few
Though you may learn them to your woe”

“I’m really not like other girls
Now get this in your head
Though I seem all bows and curls
I really am quite dead”

“You’ve asked me for my hand, and see
I can give it without harm”
And quick as counting one two three
She ripped it from her arm

“So now you know the truth” she sighed
“As grim as can be said
Why none would want a girl who died
Let alone one who’s undead”

She was bewitching in the full moon’s light
Standing there hand in hand
I was filled with love and not with fright
And knew I must take a stand

I cried “Our marriage plan we can fulfill
I believe in body positivity
Whether alive or dead it’s a body still
Regardless of morbidity”

We made our plans all through the night
Our thoughts like blood did flow
By dawn we knew it would be alright
I just must learn to sew

I held her close with all my might
Vowed to leave her nevermore
She asked ‘Please dear, don’t squeeze so tight”
As her left eye hit the floor

We celebrate our love each Hallow’s Eve
With ghosts and ghouls and witches
I love her laugh which you may believe
As I keep her all in stitches

It is not being without you, which I can never be
It is being apart from you, that always empties me

This way to the show, folks
The most amazing show you have ever seen
Bigger, wider, deeper
Wondrous and terrifying
More beautiful than your dreams
Uglier than you can imagine
And all for free
If you speak very loosely, that is

Watch your step son
Don’t trip on the unintended consequences

Step right this way
There’s no time like the present
In fact there’s no time left at all
Take a peek behind the curtain if you dare
What’s the worst that could happen
Probably best not to think too much about it

See the man without a plan
Watch him stumble through life
Be amazed as he defies death on the streets
His struggles with addiction will amuse you
Enjoy the bitterness of his regrets

Be stupefied by the clueless wonder
Taken advantage of at every turn
Thrill as he turns into the human doormat
Feel free to wipe your shoes on him
He likes it, really

Prepare your senses for the shock of
The compassionate woman
Stand bewildered as she is betrayed by lovers
Gasp as she weeps for people she does not know
Make her a promise as you leave fellas
You will make her day

You will be stunned by the man who is not like you
Be horrified at his minor differences
Criticize all his perceived flaws
Feel free to mock him, he is used to it

What’s that ma’am
No don’t feel sorry for them
They like it here
Three hots and a cot you know
Only some humiliation each night
And twice on Saturdays

Come one, come all
Leave the show smug and satisfied
About how much better you are
Than these miserable examples of failure

All this and more and not one penny to enter
The only fee is part of your humanity
Just drop it in the box right here
On your way in

Even when I tried to deny it, you were always there
You are my hidden sunrise on a day filled with clouds

Forced by covenant to conceal
The wound you carry deep
Too dangerous far to now reveal
The secret you must keep

The truth, it’s said, can set you free
Whose truth, I ask my heart
Some truth must hide, to shadow flee
Or slay as a poisoned dart

A truth which must be guarded well
Though to be shouted loud it cries
Must be restrained and forced to dwell
Within a citadel of lies

A soaring fort of alabaster walls
Splendid turrets as disguise
Conceals pits beneath its gilded halls
Where love lies brutalized

Though we ache for all the world to see
To the heart, it matters naught
Two souls are not united by decree
Nor love with license bought

So truth must wait and a prisoner remain
In lonely cell, there to abide
Believe dreams of freedom are not in vain
That gates, one day, will open wide

“you leave me breathless” she sighed, as their lips parted
“then take mine” he offered “all I have is yours”

Lovamatious………...Lovatory………………...Loverillic…………………………

                  Lovorsary                                               Lovotomy



                                      Lovamation




                     Lovevic







       Please, someone, help me











                     I can’t stop

Oh my Love
Let us Lovingly Love
Our Lovely Love

And with our Lovingness
Our Lovicity will
Love the Love of Lovers

Love only Love
And the Love of Love
Loveraciously

With Loving Loveliness
And Lovitude Lovability Lovishness Lovaroni Loviquity

          Lovectomy

                  Lovelishment

                            Love……….

                                     Love……………...

                                             Love…………………………..

Where was I?

Come to me with all that you are
Leaving nothing behind
Make no attempt to conceal a scar
Nor wound of body or mind

Bring all your lifelong memories
Whether fragments or complete
Your daydreams and your reveries
Your tales, your songs, your grief

Let old dwellings be deserted
Pack each and every thought
Allow no baggage to be diverted
Every aspect to be brought

Load up your darkness and your light
Make parcels of all you know
Wrap strength and weakness, wrong and right
Prepare them all to go

Make ready your heart for travel
Include chips and pieces scattered
Edges beginning to unravel
Even dust, from when it shattered

Be sure no detail is forsaken
Have no token to give in lieu
Delivery will be signed and taken
With all the love I bear for you

She bolts awake from nightmare’s fear
Her mind fumbles for the mask
Its visage calm, gaze cool and clear
Once in place no one will ask

Exhausted from her restless night
Escape routes all slammed shut
The knots already pulling tight
Deep down inside her gut

The enemy stand at their station
They circle round her bed
Anticipating her annihilation
The demons in her head

Her feet are not yet on the floor
But the battle has begun
Another endless day of war
She must fight, she cannot run

She glances quickly in the glass
Haunted eyes she cannot meet
The enemy charge takes the pass
Her soul in forced retreat

The mask will serve her well today
Its rigid smile conceals
The terror barely held at bay
The torment that she feels

She plants her banner on the mound
Though hopelessness holds sway
She grits her teeth and holds her ground
But the ******* make her pay

All day the battle rages on
But the mask remains in place
Though at her feet hell’s chasms yawn
The world sees not a trace

The conflict ebbs, her shoulders slump
No victory is claimed
She turns for home, trailing blood
Count her among the maimed

Return to camp yields no respite
Command’s duties have no end
Cares for her troops into the night
Strength's last measure she will spend

All her charges now in bed
Mask in hidden place she keeps
In resignation bows her head
And midst the dark, in silence weeps

Now when the camp lies silent
In night’s hush no pennant streams
She braces for coming violence
And girds for bloodshed in her dreams

we are spontaneous
COMBUSTION
set me alight
your soul fuels my flame
boil, deep fry, and barbeque
char me bone deep
in flagrante corpus
we immolate together
conflagration
deflagration
don’t fear cremation
ashes will rise again
burn me to the ground

words hanging out together
down at the corner

doing nothing
saying nothing

getting in the way
begging for attention

some spend so much time together
they start to rhyme

some just lay there
bad poetry is everywhere

glad I don’t write bad poetry
uh oh ….

Place all my memories in a row
From old to fresh and new
There is one certain thing I know
From first to last they’ll be of you

From newborn cry to fading light
Each reflection which breaks through
Burns in mind's eye with image bright
And remembrance of you

To search the halls of Mnemosyne
To seek what there is true
From moonlit night to sun washed day
Each thought I find will be of you

Should I on life’s love reminisce
And choose each echo to pursue
All of my muse would come to this
My one pure dream has been of you

My first memory is of you
I move with halting steps
Of feet new to walking
Towards a window of a little house

Looking out on an approaching storm
The air is still and heavy
Pressing everything down to the earth
Like a photograph
In which only I have motion

Heat takes away all relief
Even from the shade
Skin always damp with sweat
Silence smothers all thought of sound

No voices, no music, no birds
The endless shurring of the insects
Has been suppressed in anticipation
With a promise of the storm’s cool kiss

Blue and gray mix in the sky
Prophecy of your eyes
Still so far away
I am looking past the storm
Even then I am looking for you

Waiting for you
I have known you
Before that feverish, soundless day
Before all my days began

I knew you
I loved you
Now I wait
To be with you again

If you will take anything
Take only my heart
For poor as it is
I have nothing else of worth

If you speak
Speak to it gently
For it is ignorant of all things
Save love for you

If you journey
Carry it carefully
For it overflows
With need for you

If you wish to keep it
Forever it is yours
For it can never
Fit the hands of another

If you go
Do not return it
For I will have no need
Of an empty heart

Measure my love in starlight
And set the sky ablaze
Measure my love in words
And eternal speak my beloved’s praise

Measure my love in raindrops
And overflow the seas
Measure my love in sighing
And make storms from a summer breeze

Measure my love in music
And hear all the world’s choirs sing
Measure my love in riches
And make every pauper a king

Measure my love in heartbeats
And deafen every ear
Measure my love in laughter
And banish every tear

Seek to measure my love as some might wish
By consulting the learned or wise
But each effort will fail, because such a scale
No mortal thought can devise

She cannot see her beauty
It’s hidden by the lies
She cannot see her luminous skin
Or the starlight in her eyes

Her incandescent smile she cannot discern
Nor glimpse heaven with autumn hair
She finds no bloom in her rose kissed lips
The mirrors scorn she cannot bear

She loathes her form, her gaze only shows
Repellent, gross, uncouth
But the Maker’s hand has glorious woman shaped
If she could only see the truth

Her splendor revealed is radiance unbound
Making others seem weak and pale
And though Elysium descried, she sightless remains
Concealed by a hideous veil

I’ll wage my war against hell’s deceit
That her vision could be set free
And one day her eyes would be opened
To the beauty she cannot see