My scars
are etched
by tears
like canyons
along my cheeks.

You move me
like music.

Your voice
sings to me.

Your skin
is a symphony.

Your smile?
An endless coda.

Your wet,
my hard.

A string of intertwining melodies
bound as one,
no interval.

An ostinato
that never leaves
the eternity of
your Springtime breeze.

And so I write here
so as not to disturb.
What can I say?
All I am is words.

I'll be

dreaming...

Salt...Sand...

Your brown skin
in the Sun.

You left me discarded
a dead leaf drying further
and went on your pursuit
of attention and power.

Not even the acorn
resplendent in its beauty
could pull you back
into orbit.

Well four decades
have taught me well
and I have pursued
you long enough.

I can father myself,
so *******.

...and I cradled your head
on my chest
hair a rarest substance
onyx in reflection
eyes black holes
whose event horizon
arrests me

the feel of your skin
cheek cradled in my palm
press of your body
like a reflecting song
I can't get out
of my head

and I could breathe
again.

He watched, eyes like bullets,
as his innards spilled down
the ziggurat's multicoloured steps.

Sacrifice impetus:
To win the Gods' request

And as he breathed his request,
she was his again,
and he died
happy.

The ocean surface
spills into a sinking vessel
and
     I
        am
       d r   i   f      t       i           n                g

The heat from the furnace
cannot replace
the warmth
of you

and I'm freezing
in your absence.

I stood in the day
outstretched arms
as I stared directly into the sun.

I could feel its life giving aura
bounce off me,
not penetrating my brittle heart
and often times

I'm ready for it to end.

I'm sorry
I didn't show up
knowing all you'd been through
before.

I'm sorry
You counted on me
and were only let down
again.

I'm sorry
That I got comfortable
and took your love for
granted.

I'm sorry
That I gave you safe spaces
then slowly pulled them
away.

I'm sorry
I let my illness get the better of me
breaking your
trust.

I'm sorry
I'm sorry
Mija,
I'm sorry.

Your hips rotate, counter-clockwise
and I breathe deeply into your
honey ***,
my wet tongue coaxing you out
your button shows.

I press it
tongue it
gently
then not so
gently.

Worship at the temple I present
Hard stone, broad
supplicate yourself
in prayer before it.

Face down now
spread
open
invaded
consumed
release
***

Kind words
Pure love
Tender care
Open hearts

We used to lay out like cartwheels singing songs
as the world spun around us, uncaring
we danced around it until madness stole
our innocence.

And I've never been more convinced
that ruin, like the horrors of leftover war,
can be overgrown again
and green.

The light in my life
the care that is given
the love that is had
the loss that is hidden

The choice I have made
the way I express
the spaces between
where I am defenseless

The cracks where they show
the pain that still stings
the way to escape
finality brings.

The love that we have
the endless dream
the corrupting touch
of all that we've seen

Drunk on the vapour
as the worm turns
Erase and rewrite me
all I am is words

My sweet, sweet girl
spinning out away
kaleidoscope of construction paper-life
that turned me back
from the grey
and gave
me life.

Yes,
even if you were
a worm
a rock
a man
I would still love you.

Despite the marriage vows,
I can no longer promise it will last forever,
like I used to be able to,
but I can promise
you will never be loved
as I love you.

How could it not be
that this branch
I've clambered out onto
would hold me,
but instead it lured me
false pretense
to climb further out
until it has now snapped
dumping me
into the carnivorous jungle
below.

I've always unfurled myself to you
like a map that guided you
to where you currently stand
and wondered when
you'd roll me back up
and put me away.

I can hardly remember your voice
I can hardly remember your face
I can hardly remember your smell
I can hardly remember your touch

I look forward to joining you.

Am I awake?
Alive, but unsung
Ego under
Self-fandom dead
No one in worship
Alone in the bed
Cold as a single in
the bed that we've made.

This wasn't supposed to be
about you,
but you have completely
overrun me defenses,
invaded every peaceful
part of my being.

And I've been sleep walking
through our love
only to find
I was never restrained.

He fled, his shelter broken.
A carnie, free in molestation.

Though drunk in stability
she saw the bank account
and drooled.

When life turns against us,
I choose you.
When scars are all it seems we have,
I choose you.
When the easiest way is out,
I choose you.
When the easiest way out is not easy at all,
I choose you.
When the end seems like the only way,
I choose you.
And if you walk away,
I choose you.
Until my end and beyond,
I choose you.

****
****
Me
You
Give
Receive
Dominate
Submit

I uncurled myself today
dug my fingers right in, nails first
like putty my skin gave way
and I reached inside
sinewy tendrils I grasped like noodles
slippery and slick
and I pulled until
I removed myself
from myself
and unraveled
in a wet pile.

I still wait for you
I still long for you
I still think of you
I still want to talk to you
I still want to smell you
I still want to touch you
I still want to *******
I still want to love you

I still want you
and drop tears that will not stop,
at the end of the day.

It's funny how
things like
opening and closing
the windows
with the daybreak
stick in your mind.

I asked him how he dealt
with his father-loss
babbling the words out
in all my anxious longing.

"I know, Son,"
his voice came
from across the world
like a Father's always does.

"That tightness
in the chest...
Yes,
I know."

I had never felt closer
to another man.

I had never felt more
like his son.

I had never felt
more understood.

A gradient of gravel
rough, coarse,
thins,
and the asphalt cries
tears of tar
where you once parked.

You're moving out,
a bit at a time,
coming back for everything,
except me.

I watched as your makeup fell
from the bathroom sink
we'd shared all this time.

As it struck, like us,
it played out like a universe birth,
reds, browns, purples...
spraying out in a cone before me.

I've been dead,
cold,
heat-death.

And when I woke
I watched as
your makeup
hit the floor.

And we are pouring away
like the words
that won't
stop coming.

And we choke down
like the pain
that won't
stop coming.

Who am I?

When you took me down
we spin through memories
of brilliant star skies
when you were so happy
and nothing mattered
and you had your innocence
and I had you.

Abnormal, she waits
his kiss not enough
his love suffering
from self-esteem issues
as she courts danger
like a mouse
trapped in
a wall of sound.

Your body will never speak
the same language.

No one will ever be the tongue
of you at my root
drenching up
to the tip.

An act of supplication
and worship
that has left me
an atheist.

I should've loved you better
And I'm sorry for the love
you gave so easily and I neglected
caught up in my sickness
and this ******* disease
which took me away from you
and now we don't know
where we stand
and my feet
and soul
are crying.

My stomach turns like
the violence in your eyes
spun around dizzy upped
lost in the love we have
for each other
when everything else
wants to destroy us.

Empty like your love for me
poured out from a broken vase
that you considered
throwing out.

Once a window came down over me
and I saw through it, there
in the distorted time signatures
changing to odd-numbers on even
seconds pass since
I watched you
walk out of the frame
and you never noticed
a bed of broken wishes
and sunken-middle vases.

The sky unrolls like parchment
and angels lose their footing
as all the devils of the world
fly free, screaming.

You've spun your pretty blonde hair
and now you just look away
and I'm left, stranded
driving off into
a neon horizon.

Your hair
tangles
hands
across hips
the color red
your familiar
alien scent
as stars dance
in your dilating eyes.

It's a cold and lonely world
when the only person
you can talk to
is paid to do so
once every ten days or so.

When no one wants details,
and friends respond only with emojis
the cold of Winter
snaps especially deep.

When you are here,
you light up my world.
And so,
when you're gone,
I keep all the lights on.

The bedroom light on
(I imagine you in there reading)
The bathroom light on
(I imagine you in there grooming)
The living room light on
(I imagine you doing homework)

And still,
my world,
is dim.

She sings but
the song
isn't the same
without you
here.

And I can taste
the tears
you do not shed
as your pretty head
rests elsewhere.

I could bring the blood
of a thousand sacrifices
spilling entrails
through the fingers
just to hear
you call me
by My name.

Are you there?
If so,
it's less.

And you say don't plant flowers,
then wonder why we have no garden.

And you say don't call you by name,
then wonder why we've become strangers.

And you say don't give,
then wonder why we share nothing.

And you say don't speak freely,
then wonder why meals are so silent.

Are you there?

Are you?

I look to you
but there's no one
there.

And this non-silence
cuts through skin
leaving only nerves
unwound like noodles.

I can quiet this vessel
with lies and straw
like the effigy
lit to us.

"What will my parents think?"
she whispered as his eyes flashed red.
"They won't even know you're dead, "
spoke his venom just outside her head.

Brittle flesh
Delicate hair
Cloth on mouth
Lack of air

******* and your righteousness.
******* and your heart.
******* and your pretty head.
You were dead from the start.

Your lips taste like gunmetal
and I'm a waste of time
and energy.

So I held her down
under my tongue
until she
fired her life off into my mouth.

Picasso on the wall
intricate patterns and raw shapes
leave the message I always
wanted.

Pull me back,
expose the nerves
violet scabs as
we relieve ourselves
in each other.

Darkened doorsteps
in the collapse of a decade.

Fill me up, drunkard.

Empty me out, wife.

I am nothing without you but everything.

Will you stay?

The days fall together
like books falling
from a shelf.

The walls have faces
where the clocks
lost hands.

And it is,
so it is,
and shall be
in a cascade of
goose-flesh
and
happiness.