A woman standing
Blissfully selling deceit
Sun kissed fully
From slender shoulders
To well handled feet
What she is peddling
Is a quick death for you
Which
Of course
Is a crime scene of hope
For me

A woman laying
Down a road of cobbled debt
Jobless & unfettered
Pain
Gracefully understood as necessary
Helps to part the clouds
& lips
Of course the Jameson doesn't hurt
In that moment to forget
What is said
Is set
& time
That *******
Will tell you
I'm the best friend
You wish you never met

A woman bracing
Silhouetted in darkly rash
But honest words
Naked underneath that kimono
Making me speak my promo
Branding a man like me
Unkempt
But well deserved
Ad hoc
You can take from the candy jar
Desire is a form of greed
Only make what you can serve

A woman thinking
Too hard about a man
Who in all regard
Is selfish
A man so allergic to control
& escape
Particularly shellfish
Thinking is the first mistake
Dealing with a copy of an original
A print out of print
Try before you buy
You don't want to sell for less

A woman beautiful
Like the trees in the fall
Littering your mind with challenges
Blowing down a house made of straw
Standing before a man
Outlining perfection
No need of masculine protection
Leaving the scoundrel
***** soaked in awe
This is where you belong
My dear
In the fantasy of it all
Because you mean woman
Which means too much to me
This game we play
Is still too close to call

i see a figure in the dark 
talons clasped
dripping in blood 
rust
& vermillion
staggering at tearing
exaggerating an overarched tell
a blatant question 
how are you
i see a blind mandala
prayer hands clasped
dripping in tears
of pure salinity
& surging tides
bow hunting in the dark
flowing outward unto a convex well
a patient response
i don’t care
I see a tanned ***** bone
lower limbs clasped
dripping in lubrication
of creme 
& fresh pressed juice
mindful of one moment
misandry in this
a hesitant sconce 
i need you
i see crows feet 
sickly skin 
of snow & sleet
i see a son becoming his father
love of the climb
addicted to the fall
from a widows peak
i see all of this 
& yet 
i am blinded by every her 
after all
half the battle is in the dark

Perhaps there is more than a rose color lightly dusting our water
Perhaps what nourishes is sub conscious dilemma
More than ******* determination
And perhaps it was meant to be a blinding acrobatic light
Dancing through incendiary reclaimed wood
Like old souls
For whatever that means
Repurposed for sympathy, stabilization, and nothing more

The last thing we see
before we go
is the infinite amounts of love, we felt
as the sun shown
& we were blanketed by snow

Perhaps I fear death as an answer to a problem
I'd rather debate
Perhaps it's a question I never asked
Or perhaps that coddled smoldering I feel is your true perch
Wet jeans
And brittled browned elbows, flapping as feathers
Perhaps you will go free
That is to say lightly, with a delirium’s touch
Perhaps I wish to wash you again
In all the epithets that is friends, family
That made me a man
And made us our mothers worst enemy

The last thing we believe
before we go
is the finite amounts of hate, we felt
as the moon rose
& we were blanketed by hubris
& home

I know choice, like the girded saddle of a mare in heat
Necessity, as the wisdom of generalized minorities
making your American ends meet
Freedom, was the paranoia of my ex loving my best friend and ******* me
Love, is my mother
Cut, paranoid, helpless, determined, political,
a passion for belief
squint in her eyes
Still able to see

And that could be you
Or me
Bare and isolated
Not dead
Nor dreaming
But desiring
Any sense of normality
Stamping our feet deep into a soil
Of those encircling us
Demanding to stay
“That’s ok.
but if you fall, we won’t catch you”

I wish I could warn you about the Salton sea
Of its panicked shores
Of bottomfeeders
Topside once more
It's stenched coasts
Lush green migraines and migration
Boasting of the lives & liberty cost
Drowning in the murk of men’s habitual need
To improve upon ruination

I wish I could caution you to an endorheic basin
Of its perennial purpose
Of many fertile farms
Impregnated by men & their desire to quench desire
It is a natural ****
It is buried deep in the salinity of quest & reason
Give them structure from which to exalt
Give yourself a *******
Working the cracks and the cross of concrete which is potholed & pitted

I wish I could show you a river valley ahead of it’s time
Of its eventual need to exist
Of dependent mockingbirds
& cattled egrets
An uneven ***** on which mother colorado rests your beleaguered complaints
Drink up while it lasts
A memorandum to a family
That dried up the poisoned well

I wish we could fall to our knees
We don’t
We raise our hands to the sky
Take me dear lord
But first
Let me take a selfie
Let me edit my life
Let me apply a filter over this endless malcontent
& then when it isn’t enough
Let me blame you

These are places you will continue to go
Where the roads are paved with unforeseeable pain
Where  each twist and yellow line
Reminds you of that feeling
Of why
Am I forced to go along with traffic
Of who
You feel is yelling instruction from that passenger seat
A curve of collusion
Following a river of responsibility
Allowing you to race along that valley
To that never ending feeling of this
Isn’t how it should be