rocket ships and
blooming flowers,
i feel as though i've
gargled with shampoo
but in a good way where
i'm fizzing from the

inside

                                     out,

all the way

up
my
throat

and through my nose. i
have been finding myself
in the cracked porcelain of
my shower, in his
laugh                                          
             ­                             lines,
in my mother's

smile             smile
smile

for me please. didn't
i used to love to be here
for a lens why would
i have ever hated my
own mouth?
there is so much
b e a u t y
in these curves and
cr ev ic es.
i am so proud to be
the owner of these

hands

and of these

hips

thank god i am back thank
god i am back

hush now
how can
you stand
the noise
you've put in
our ears please
just come
home

She made her home in a hundred different people-
Inside the desert of her heart
A brawl of sorts
It didn't much matter the type
Just as long as they were living
Perhaps to capture even the tiniest of thread-
Of what it felt like to encompass the sensation
Of the lines that our nerves dance along in the presence of a warm touch

Only-
As the heightened flight began to ******* in gravity
She was left in hunger-
A vulture
Devouring the living
Only to continue walking beside them


(C) Tiffanie Noel Doro

winter

I sit upon your wooden bones
And breathe you, sigh for sigh
Feed the only heat (like hunger)
That made it through the night

spring

You climb the branches of my tree
And grapple at my budding hips
You rest below my nest of hair
To catch your breath between my lips

fallen

You overturn my inner earth
Where saplings of these stories grow
Their roots exposed to face the sun
Inside the soil of my soil

She was more pure of heart than she let on.
More beautiful than she believed.
The sun itself would be envious
of the light in her eyes.
She was a lady of many hats,
all of which she wore elegantly.
But there was an emptiness within her
that's gravitational pull was so intense,
not even the heaviest of hearts were safe.
She, with the smirk of a fox.
She speaks my thoughts out loud,
she faces my worst fears,
she wanders like I do...
"Run away with me", her eyes scream.
Her mouth whispers "If only".
Simultaneously giving and taking hope.
It was a tear in the universe,
a glitch in time, a crack in faith.
This was not supposed to be.
Not now.
For her the wedding bells toll.
For I the silence of singularity.
I watched her eyes start to shimmer,
and flood with confirmation.
She caught herself, and smiled.
"We will meet again...someday." She shouted,
as she disappeared into the crowd.
It was time for the father, bride dance.
As she walked away...I thought,
"I am quite possibly watching part of my soul walk away."

If I could track myself down
(go back to when I completely
lost myself in you) I'm sure I'd
be on your couch with that
white blanket and your
h  e  a  r  t  b  e  a  t
racingracingracing
beneathe my ear. How
does
it feel to sit there without
me now? I wonder if you miss
me, do you wish         you could call
me, do you wish you could kiss
my fingers like you used to? I
had a dream last night
that we got married
on a jungle gym.