Everything has
its purpose
including nothing
the space between
our fingers
allow us to grip
and to hold
more efficiently
and the spaces between
us
allow me to love you
more beautifully
and wholly
because I had to learn
how to make my love
caress you
hold you
and warm you
when I’m not there
and the stars
just like our moments
together
wouldn’t look so
beautiful
if it were not for the
spaces between them

Love burns you
--even when we
describe it as something
positive
a burning love
so to speak
we are still
describing destruction
although not all
destruction is bad
such as the destruction
of your flawed coping mechanisms
and the walls you build around
your vulnerability
after the last brush with love
melted your wings
and sent you plummeting
into the icy sea below
where the cold helped your
heart come together once
more and all that’s left
now is to destroy
the shell of your former self
with fire.

It’s the first day of
summer
and from here on out
the days get shorter so
we are racing against
the clock and the setting sun
to ensure that only the
very best of our memories
survive and the pain
gets lost in the impending
shadows of winter

People have ruined so many songs for me,
I hope yours is the one I get to play for the rest of my life.

I need a friend
with whom
I can talk about
things like
poetry
and the shudder of
the earth when we
write a line that
seems to resonate
with infinity
and with whom
I can discuss
the fear of rejection
and the sneaking suspicion
that maybe none of this
is actually very good
and I've struck
an anomaly
and I need a friend
who will bear with me
during moments of weakness
where i want to burn away all of
my words

I gave up once
and nothing changed
the world kept turning
the hyenas kept laughing
the buzzards kept feasting
the sun kept shining
and nothing was undone
so I changed myself
and
the world kept turning
the hyenas kept laughing
the buzzards kept feasting
the sun kept shining
and I kept living
which isn't too bad.

Blocked and unfriended
blocked and unfriended
blocked and unfriended
is this truly the death
sentence we make it out
to be?

It fascinates me how pervasive
technology has become
and how a friend request
gives way to knowing
every intimate detail
about each other's lives

Congrats on that baby, by the way
Yes it looks just like the father!
(No it doesn't, it looks like an alien
because it is a newborn baby)

But when we cut the umbilical
cords that we have attached to each other
for emotional sustenance,
what are we saying?

I don't want you to know
about my life!
We aren't friends online
so you can't permanently
eavesdrop on my eventful
and much-more-exciting-than-yours life!

And you should feel bad
about that.
You're being left out.
I don't value you enough
to let you be
a bystander
an extra
in my life hoping for a little screentime.

What a creative way to hurt each other.

I can't stop thinking
about a stranger
from my graduating class
who killed himself a while back
and how he was a quiet type
and had a cloud of hateful rumors floating
around him at all times and
a few years back he took a shotgun
and you know the rest
and all I can think about is how
there are a thousand people
on his memorial page on Facebook
all reminiscing about their time
with the boy they ignored
but all really cared about
deep down
and it makes me afraid of death
because I don't want to be remembered
on some page that gets filed away
with all the other pages and groups
and noise
about buy/sell/trade
and swap meets
and the latest crazy wrap thing.