A man will admire a diamond.
A man will admire a pearl.
A man will admire a woman.
To him, she is his world.

A man admires his mother.
A man admires his child.
A man admires that lady that builds him up instead of tearing him down.

A real man protects his lady.
A man will defend his family.
A man will sacrifice his life to make everything alright.

They say I can't chase you next
Can't seek out the moon over Mexico
or relive the tears I shed on the plane
home,
I can't feel the tirelessness of our forever
like the hope that dawned and set inside your eyes
I memorized every stitch in the broken couch
and I can still see us there
You're studying, I'm sleeping,
Planting rhubarb and watching our trees grow
Lightning shorted out the reception tower out back
As I sat on the end of our bed, mind blank, and laughed
All the glitter on the stone patio and the shirt left in the rain and the socks hung to dry on a hook you
Forgot
We kneaded pizza dough and watched Roseanne
That I jumped on you in the middle of the storm as you held me,
Kissing while UMF raged
In one loud, still moment
You are stopping me at the towel shack
Finding my legs under the restaurant table
Shoving my mittened hand in your pocket
Asking me to stay
Messaging me
and I know I'll chase you again
I just can't be with you now.

light as a feather
i’m in your sweater
feeling under the weather
i wish i was better
but love can’t be measured
and the rest is forever

The poet
regularly battles the mob
and displays those scars
carved into his heart.
The poet
is despised in his time
and admired
by the generations
he never meets.

–Ron Gavalik

when I was younger I remember
The feeling that I needed to cease existing
I would hide in the alcove of my sisters room
And hold my breathe as long as I could

lythrum leans in
curious, tall -
I have nothing to tell

nothing left

I take careful steps, mind loose-stones
don’t twist me up

fire-lidded

I am here, I breathe here

I bleed a weak, thorny tide

here

Society had its plans for me
I played into it spectacularly
But I can dance for you to prove I'm not broken
The crank is in back
And slightly out of whack
But you'll truly believe I've awoken
With dust covered slippers and a baby pink dress
I'll creak back to life to display my distress
And to look at me golly, no one would guess
That this toy is most certainly broken

I loved you

through the bitter

and you loved me

through the sweet