your heart
breaks different
when it beats
alone

it may be late,
but the sun came up enough today
for it to go down.

that’s enough for me.

meeting you
is like reliving a memory

and loving you
is forgetting the worst ones

when earthquakes shiver
when thunder drifts down from the hills
all the citizens burn down their home
and rip down the gate to their city

a trickle of rain sends them reeling
sprinting in circles for the end of the world
grabbing on to rubble
in an attempt to keep their balance

it sure feels nice to be hungry

my life is just a
countdown to sobriety—
and i’m feeling great.

The story of you is a tale of woe—
I collected her things, all safely been stown.
When we first met, my mother taught me to sew,
and with your blood, I must let her go.

cheap beer will always taste
like the bars that raised me

and your lips will always taste
like the thing that saved me

You told me once
to never stop asking
my hundreds of questions
that leave you gasping.

When you looked at me,
eyes tracing your hands--
with a quick grasp
at the drawer of your nightstand.

You asked me a question--
just like my hundreds.
So real and so hot
mouth open, body spread;

"So you’re telling me, somehow
i have to take the most beautiful girl
in my life,
and bruise her thighs?"

This ever-growing exodus
of one-hit-wonders
drifting through the air.
A single word
away from obscurity.

Perhaps it would be better
to never rise, only
to hit the ground with their tears...
and, most importantly—
follower count.

I lost my notebook the other day
It didn’t quite look like something
I had made.
It looked too pristine, too manicured.
I wrote on its pages with all my heart,
I could have no way of knowing it wasn’t messy enough.

It had a grey cover.
My last name written on the inside.
It wasn’t exactly filled yet…
But the words inside tumbled out like
I’d never intended them to.

It’s long gone.
Probably left in my classroom…
Maybe on the floor of my car.
Who knows!
I don’t quite have the energy to look right now.
Not enough energy until it’s too late to look.

I spent six dollars on it.
Down at the local craft store.
Its’ cover design fades from white to black,
Very different from the contrast of my pen.
I only ever used black ink.
Maybe it’s because, that’s what color pen was closest.

I lost my notebook the other day.
Hopefully someone will find it.
I guess they’ll probably read my name on the cover,
God help me if they read anything but my name.
They might think
I’m sad.
I guess they’d be right.

let the sound of the music
drown out the check engine light
as your pulse beats to the drums

And as it appears,
I’ve gone and lost my mind and
can’t remember where

it took too long to realize-
the covers on us
cold walls and warm sheets,

soft light in your eyes
sweet nothings to discuss,
we'll share the spot where our hands meet.

i don't care if there's flies-
i'll never make a fuss.
let my heart stop its' incessant beat.

running and falling
does not scare me.
because if I hit the ground,
at least I’d feel something.

the dogs bark
and the caravan progresses

the children cry
but the world spins

will pursue meaning of life
fear of someday that will end
lose that human element

Is it the caffeine
or the hunger that’s keeping
me up every night?

the rain trickles against
my window like a crackling fire

and i remember what my father told me,
raindrops fall faster than ashes

My mind
Spins
On an axis of my creation,

It twists,
So very fast,
With not a single nudge!

It whirls
In its circles
For no reason at all.

Pulling,
Pulling.
Pulling!
A string tied to its base

It weaves that string tighter,
Until there is no more string to weave
And my twirl must cease.

But end! End it shall not!
The string has broken,
and my mind has won at last!

Maybe the spin,
Ever growing in speed,
Can at last go in the right direction,

Before I fall off my axis
And tumble
Down
down
d o w n
d  o  w  n

take me to the nearest mountain.
i’ll bring snacks, the blanket,
you’ll bring you and a map.

we’ll sit and eat snacks under the stars,
all until the floods make us chew
with our mouths closed

in your stomach, in your lungs—
what is it you’re running from?

to my core, all for the fun,
but in the end i’ll run towards your gun.

I scribbled you love
the only way I knew how—
in verses and rhyme.

Found my handwriting
on discarded scrap paper...
didn’t even blink.

let’s run for the woods—
write each other
love letters on the fallen bark,

take a dip in the lake,
walls of pine trees around us,
fish nipping at our toes.

we’ll nap in a field of moss—
ferns tickling our legs and
kissing under the canopy...

and someday we’ll go home
to the warm cave with a fire
and watch the sparks float like fireflies,

someday.

so much wonder
seeping through your eyes
some genius buried under
the blue that shines like skies

Silk coated the plush,
your warm hands to greet me.
Soft caresses of my hair,
from a girl with hands softer.

Sunlight drifting in,
soft gold flakes dancing just for us—
warm open windows
to attract the sounds of society,

off-white, draping robes cover
lace-clad thighs—
smoother than thought possible.
All there for me to caress.

Time in molasses...
nowhere to be,
nobody to please,
except, of course, Her.

i see a white truck driving opposite me
they’re on the opposite side of the valley
i wonder who is driving.

i like to imagine it’s a father with a little girl strapped in
mostly because i want to imagine it’s me
in my fathers brown chevy

it smelled like cigarettes and spring.
i mostly hope it’s the same for that little girl
and her father.

i miss my father cranking the windows down,
he would pull over to do it
because neither of us could reach.

he would go to hell and back for me.
i love him and he loves me
so why can’t we say it out loud.

now i sit on the bus with an aching back
trapped inside windows that won’t open
and i look across the valley.

ever so agonizingly,
i whisper to the void
to ****** a single wish—
that is, to submit to being full...

i will be in love
for as long as your smile
brings my head to a boil

I thought I lost you,
but you found me in others.  
so long as you’re loved...

To dance through the
negotiations of gods and men,
To pull the strings
tighter than the strings of your dress.

Adrift from hand to hand,
with fingertips soft as leather
and a head as empty as the city,
you delicately play your hand.

God has woven your souls,
or so the legend is told.
But somehow I find you four years later
With another man, and a country to rule.

Drifting over asphalt,
stars slipping through the sunroof.
Full throttle.

He turned all to suddenly
(and not suddenly enough)
right into me.

Jokes on him,
he turned with plenty of room
I just never hit the break.

And as the story goes
he’s blamed as the guy
who killed my parents daughter,

when actually she slipped away,
through the sunroof and to the stars,
many years ago...

Loving you has
become routine

I can’t break
routine, can I?

my leg bounces
like my pulse on the trigger
with my thoughts going slower
and stakes bigger

as i stumbled home—
chill bouncing through my jacket,
it was nice to follow the moon
as something tangible.

The brume dripped down the hills in inevitable
swaths, with mist dispersing across the
town, yet with no more room left to run.
I sifted through the fog dancing across
my windshield, with vision blurred from
headlights looking me deep in the eye.
Shepherded by racing heart, I spotted a
glow through the murky negative. A flame.
The red licks to the heavens stole my arms,
swerving my car out of the lane. I threw
my eyes to the source of the embers just to
identify a street light blinking at me, the haze
softening its edges. I laughed to the beat
of the music echoing softly through my
vehicle, after I bid my goodbyes to the
tale of potential heroism that floated
away with the wisps.

Don’t ask questions,
it’s not true—

Please don’t make me
lie to you.

be the vines,
exist slowly. cautiously.

crawl up, looking for any
footholds to expand your reach.

exist violently.
tear down the bricks of
the building you conquered

and above all else—

rise to the top of what you hate the most.

color dripping from the clouds,
dousing the crystal oceans
with waves like prisms.

tides drawing in hues—
playing warm shades like a symphony
and cold in leveled harmony,

but as we watch the greys fall
from the sky like ashes,
we weep in tones of silver and gold.

we battle demons
back to back,
both of us
protecting each other...

i haven’t seen
your face in so long,
that i would let them
**** us

to kiss you

When the power grid crashes,
let's dance under the streetlights--
lit up only by the moon
and the tree sprites

nighttime phantoms of birds swoop low through the breeze,
greeting bats with sweet melodies and mingling in the trees.
not only do their songs tingle the ears of few,
but they are gone with the moon and the mid-morning dew.

i’m snagged in
the hugs that don’t hug back

i’m all tangled up in
the girl who can’t be tracked

I'm the cigarette--
glued to your hand.

I am the soft
flick of your thumb,

dripping ashes on your hand
like snow.