A yard stick was used to measure where my skirt is supposed to end,
just long enough to make sure that my body did not offend,

You see it wasn’t lady like to dress in that way,
or to play video games where the premise was merely to slay

The only coding I ever came to understand,
was any form of foul language, of which was tacitly banned

You argue that women are inherently more cooperative,
To which I would argue that humans are merely imitative

While women are no longer obliged to do housework,
I am, at least in part, merely a product of my international network

It was an esoteric statement,
Perhaps one only a beast could understand

If tar were medicine
It’d go down smoother
You try to clear the taste from your throat
But it lingers.

"count the ceiling tiles" the nurse joked
I wanted to joke
say I'd rather die
but seeing as I had just attempted that
perhaps I'd better lie

Sometimes writing is terrifying
Words come out like long legged spiders
Gross and impossible to work with

But you have to push to create
Face the fear of mediocrity
Allow fiction to sit with reality
Invite grammar for a cup of tea
Criticism arrives like a knight, blood of red ink
But the battle will be won

illusions of grandeur
oh you're the master
wana get inside that mind
become entwined

just to see the gears
know your fears
do your synapses fire
as quickly as your comebacks?

Love sits next to you
Like warm sun on summer swing
And I thank God for morning light
Next to your calm heart beat

the bad guy
tell his crossword puzzle lie
it don't matter she cry
mama don't turna blind eye

quarter til noon
maybe ive come too soon
and seems im waiting for Godot
just waiting for him to show
"on this ***** of an earth"
but for what it is worth

you made it tolerable.

And at some point
we begin to understand
as familiar hands
become soft with age
this is all we have-
and we are grateful.

Each day of our lives is but a page in the book, do not treat it as if it were the whole story.

you're my signature tune
favorite phase of the moon
sweet tea in June
always gone too soon

You knew right from the start
That you'd tear me apart
And yet you drew me in close as could be

You had baited your traps
You couldn't wait to unwrap
The guileless fly that was me

The people we love the most, may wish nothing more than to hurt us so that they can feel a modicum of control and power in their own lives.
Like the black king, we must navigate the board with precision
We can choose to move with grace, or resentment
We can choose to set boundaries and demand self respect
Or we can allow them to continue to psychologically destroy and manipulate us out of fear
Fear that the relationship will disintegrate like a figment of the imagination
Fear of the thought of being alone, truly and unfathomably alone
And while we understand their traumas and their pain,
when we accept abuse,
we allow a scythe to cross our throats
because the substance itself is heroine
soon the pain and suffering, seeks out its kind
the kind of jaundice skin that clings to fragile bone
when we choose grace, we choose the lighter load
when we set boundaries and respect ourselves
we can begin to heal

Those that do not learn
Will simply sit stagnantly
Forced to watch you grow

Veins through leaves,
Through rivers,
Through wrists,
With so much complexity to life,
I find it hard to believe death is so simple.

I love you.
You are doing a good job.

I do not see red.
My heart races.
My throat tightens.
I see nothing.
I feel nothing.
I am nothing, but what I am in this moment.
Broken walls, fractured fists.
No, I do not see red.

read: 337am

Sleepless nights comfort wounded souls
And I ask God why you left a hole
Perhaps love is not ours to control
But ******* does it hurt.

Petrichor and metal
The grey sidewalk elucidates a small copper object
How lucky am I to have come across you…
“Drop that, it is nothing!” He clips.

Antique bookends holding it together
and pain holds me down
like skeletal shadows
only threatened by morning light

maybe i should drink the cool aid
play along in the masquerade
oh, you know the tools of the trade?

maybe *** doesn't solve our problems
but I sure feel at home here

Draw a line, any line
Watch her cross it

Love her anyway

She will set your heart on fire
Be prepared to gather up the ashes

By God son,

She will paint your hometown red
But you will lust for her with every fiber of your being

You’re both a man of your word and a man who can command a room without one.
Your confidence merely serves to straighten your posture, I have never caught you looking down.

warm salty water crashes against sunned ankles
black shepherd gallops in wisps of water
as child toddles where the sea kisses white sand

Our private little rendezvous
Love me until I am black and blue
You can show me what you went through
Then I will hold you like you need me to

As I am inspecting the tomatoes for bruises and scrapes, you walk by.
Your stance is as ***** as the collar of your dark blue dress shirt.
Your pace tells me that you have no time to waste on inspecting for bruises, or scrapes.
Perhaps your wife is expecting you home, or perhaps someone else?

As the essence of "Tabacco Oud" dissipates, I bite my bottom lip hard. I imagine yours taste of gin or brandy. A level of richness and depth I could only fathom to taste.

i wouldn't offer you water in hell;
oh baby, not from the nearest well.

thought you were different.

I am corrosive
Like the sea, you see
I'll take what's left
If you come near me

"You can't run from your problems".

Watch me.

hurt me
so i can say i told you so

she was a wild one
free as the sweet Alaskan air
heart of red poppy

Suicide isn't a desire to die
Or some crestfallen out cry

It isn't some perverse fetish
Where eyes are fixed upon the wreckage  

It is a lack of will to continue
Life blurs through the rearview

Suggested to be an act of luxury
But **** the same old drudgery

Pink beans to the light
you tretch like noodle
Bird passes, a call to action

Talent is not a God given gaurentee.
It is earned through trial, error, and grit.

All who wander are not lost
Some of us are simply curious
We create a new path as we move
Each step is unknown
Some tread softly
Others leap with haste

shutter white canoe
on tropical spring waters
sways with two otters

thunder rolls
like the sleeves on your sweater
here I am hoping for better weather
I had a conversation with God
he told me he didn't know
and that just didn't seem right
but maybe if I hold on just a little longer
my future will look a little more bright

The law evolves
And with it our morality
Adapting within the confines
But changing to survive

Harsh desert winds
Give no thought to equity
Nor artic seas I'm sure

No it is the people
And their conquests we endure

Mirror, Mirror on the wall
Will he catch me if I fall?
Will he even care at all?

Mirror, Mirror on the wall
Hit you like a cannon ball
Shattered glass and alcohol

Mirror, Mirror on the wall
Reflect my fate, the curtain call

protect your own heart
with the ferocity you
protect others

And in these days of darkness
We can choose to offer light

i am
he is
we are?

pain sits on the rib cage like a soaked white feather blanket
once light and airy, comfortable
now clings to bone like the beginning of fresh decay
arms feel like honey when brushing the weight aside

"are you alright?" she asked sweetly, blush as rose from the sea's reflection

"I think so" her wife feigned a smile, but then ashamedly resumed her true form

in that moment nothing seemed alright
each breath seemed to tighten like a corset
the death of a parent leaves child wayward

lost

the riptide carried sea foam back to where it came from
and seagulls continued to inspect the shore
Mira was livid that time didn't stop

but the redolent smell of BBQ was what turned her stomach
how could people be eating when her mother was gone?
it was repulsive
an artist's nightmare
the trivialities of food and water
when such a deep hole existed.

He never loved you.
He loved the idea of you.

Means falling apart.

I will always wear my heart upon my sleeve
Lost between the truth and the make-believe
Perhaps the only difference is what I conceive