The feeling of gritty dirt between your toes and under your finger nails
The sound of pine needles falling on the rain guard of your tent
I walk outside and the cool crisp morning air stings my nostrils
Nothing could wake me up better than the smell of wood smoke on a cold morning

It's early, so the sun hasn't touched the earth, and the sky is still soft
It's a deep blue, but not dark enough to be night, and you can see bright corners
Stretching from the east, but the towering trees make it hard to see
I slip a packet of tea into a mug of hot water and sit next to the fire

I stare at the pair of muddy hiking boots sitting next to a tall mountain pine
Where should I go today? What places shall I find?

Don’t eat chicken noodle soup from a saucepan leaned back in a recliner
because your neighbor could hit his wife in the back of the head
with a cue ball and the cops might siren down your street
causing you to flinch and spill hot broth on your
chest;  I have a bone to pick with the coward.

How strange, to stand with our feet touching the same wave

I came to the ocean to forget about you
Especially at night
On nights like tonight
But here you are

And I can't help but think of how I came here to forget you
And I indulge in the thought that maybe
Just maybe there's nothing to forget right now

But then your phone DOOT doot DOOT doots
And it's her. Calling you.
******* her.
You ******* her
You calling her name out
Her calling yours
and it's tumbling out on the locked drawer in my brain
All protection I had built up
Crumbles like the sand I'm digging my toes into
Hoping tears don't come to my eyes
But they do

And suddenly everything is glassy and I can't come up with the correct responses and you know it and I'm trying to keep my breathing even and slow and I'm spiraling down like a whirlpool and I wish I could just lay down in the tide without ruining my clothes and just float away.

But I can't do that.
So I don't.
I don't know what it is about her and you and me
That has me unraveling at any mention,
But it's still too painful to sit down and analyze.
So for now, I'll settle for falling asleep with the TV on,
Trying to stop myself from wondering who you're thinking about
As you fall asleep at night.

Broken promises.
All it was amounted to
Was a string of broken promises.

The strands of my hair mix well with the breeze
and here you are, right in front me.
And it's a typical evening at Danny's
of slow-dance romances and marijuana smokers.
I'm sitting here with you in the night that smells of whiskey
And I can't help but wonder,
why do some people only exist sometimes?
People,
like you.
Who appear in the cab, on the way home or
in front of me when when I am looking at my reflection on the floor.
Or people,
like Danny.
Who don't exist until I'm writing a poem.
I'm sitting here with you in the night that smells of whiskey
And I can't help but wonder,
why do some people only exist sometimes?

There are some who may prefer a cloudless sky and the touch of a warm sun. These hearts are similar climates, and you may find them at no great distance from the equator.

Not mine.

My love is for the sedge and moss covered upland of frozen lakes, where the cold white blanket covers the steppes. Peace is found here, among the ice and whispered within the biting gale as it travels over her skin.

Her chill breath touches me, and I am not driven away.
For within my chest beats a fire as black as space between the stars.

And I go unclothed, as the caribou carry me across the frozen land.

I am the horned god.