A broken maze hides inside my mind;
Revelers rambling round never find
The end - lacking signposts or guides,
They tread eternities while the exit hides

From echoing clatter to blinding roar,
From gentle pitter-patter to take no more,
Crowds mill through in groups and pairs;
The walls vibrate, as do I downstairs

Food trucks ply their bountiful snacks
Feeding frenzy, launching scent attacks;
The noxious steam combines to rise,
Waft out, confound and desensitize

Enclosed in walls impossible to climb
Trapped all together in layered time
The revelers begin to sway and swerve
Blundering on networks of frayed nerve

With no path to success or even escape
The horde begins to push and scrape
The walls - tremble, creak, quiver, quake;
The maze, my mind, my universe - break

NCL August 2019

I hope you enjoy
My heart served on that platter
Take a slice or a few
It doesn’t matter
Add a topping, maybe two
Do what you need to do
I don’t mind
As long as you don't
Leave any crumbs behind

NCL August 2019

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.