strawberry milk tea
doesn't mix well with coffee
"oh, you taste sweet!"
older and younger meltaway
as the sun decides it's the end of the day
but there wasn't a lot
                of usable flesh

New Faces spin around my head, up and down
sharp jawlines, chiseled bodies, lips stained with fresh blood
a new one
long hair and soft curves, feel a ghostly hot breathe and you know
here we are, spinning around together, orbiting, vibrating
an old one
but a new one is all we need to forget an old one
ye olde stars always die, though not before we've found a new one
that's why the implosion hurts a little bit less

and spaces between us
you've come to show you'll go on
I'll show you
that I will too

After

From loving you came sunshine
and I lost my senses
rimmed in grey
we said we'd stay

February

I'll be late; don't worry I'm coming!
fingers flying vehicles veeringfatecolliding
what  are  you  talking  about?

Before

Never-mind, I draw the line
and fall like a teenager
[self destruct] and show up
like, and idiot

I don't need a dozen roses, you ain't gotta wine and dine me
just get all emotional, I wanna see you looking up

sensation overwhelms me
but this time it's not your touch
and in my black-tinged vision
I don't see you

the only thing we have in common, as spaces bends us apart
is the passage of time and the bruises we exchanged
space - yours fly by, reshaping your reality
           - mine sits frozen, allowing 985 to build a divide
           -
           -  and bruises heal, as memories change and fade with our
              common passage of time
if all i am is a faint smile between your lips
                            im happy

rose petals dance in the springtime breeze
azure skies above, dotted with faint grey clouds
and if you listen too close,
you'll hear the huum of the bees

wind in my hair, sun kissing my face
I glace to the left and see your body all strewn out
smiles flicker, eyes alight, you're my first place

and as the sands fall and time slips away
we pull each other close and embrace for the day

I hold your eyes with mine,
you hold my heart with yours;
we can become one
behind closed doors

The Love Laws* dictate

     (a) who can be loved by whom
     (b) and  how much

but they also say

     (c) when you hurt people, they
           can love you a little less
     (d) sometimes you will be
           torn between love and duty -
           it may help to make a list

*does not apply to the veshya,
  nor the God of Small Things
           - Chakcopappychachen Peter Mon

mirror    my face where I left it


leaves blowing into a sentence


mist,
******* on the line


in the doll's
head
news clippings


in the heat
admiring the shade in the blouse


face wrapping a champagne glass


a moment in the box of jade


in the temple
a
heartbeat


touching the ashes of my father



day darkens    in the shell


a fin
grazing on restless stars


the priest
                   his shadow caught
            on the nail


                JANUARY FIRST
      the fingers of the ******* cold


       i end in shadow