Poets/Writers/Artists! I have started a literary journal called 'Sun and Moon' and submissions are OPEN. This is a space for new and emerging writers. Send your poems, short stories, and/or visual art to sunandmoonliterary@gmail.com. Feel free to inbox for more information!

May your eyes never forget
the taste of me-
taken in,
devoured,
in the humid evenings
of late July.

May your lips never forget
the smell of me-
pink skin catching
every glisten of sweat
condensing under
the hot sun.

May your ears never forget
the sight of your name
escaping in a gasp
from my pink lips,
my eyes wide open
never missing a second
of your perfection.

"Come alive..." he urged.

Those whispered words ached in my heart
night after night. I could never seem
to make sense of the request,
and he could never see that he was
the only thing keeping me strung together.
To him, I was miles away from
the look in his eyes. Except he refused to
reach out for me, and I was incapable
of crawling back on my own.

It's hard to imagine
that one day
we will be nothing
more than fossils.

Our only remnant
a dent in the dirt.
The people who find us
will know nothing,
only that our bones
have survived
millions
of years.

Walking on the
rough concrete,
I had the
sudden realization
of what I was.

I was never
fully formed.
No hand found
mine to hold,
nor could
my own
ever rest still
at my sides.

I was created only
to free fall
through
the breath of tomorrow,
from day
to sunny day-
a mirage of freedom
to my acquaintances.

Occasionally,
I will discover
a patch of
my blanket
that smells
like you.

I let my nose
linger there,
inhaling your scent
until the aroma
fades
and the memories
wash over me

and my heart
can no longer
stay above
water.

We liked to watch sunrise-
backs pressed against
the damp hillside
landlocked to the
feeling of the moisture
soaking my shirt.

Our hands melted together-
and dawn's sky gave way
to the beginning of the day,
and the earth had never seemed
more alive.

How were we to know
that in our effort
to be extraordinary,
we would make only
careless, forgotten love.

How were we to know
you would be only
a freckle
on sun-kissed skin,
a whisper in the wind
not strong enough
to tickle my neck.

There is neither here,
nor there,

Only nothing.

There is not then or now,
what was or what will be.

Only nothing
and the space between.

Sometimes you would light a cigarette,
just to put it out.

The end would ignite
for a second or two,
then you would step on it.

You liked the idea of letting things burn
but never burn out.

Instead, you snuffed them out
before they ever had a chance
to do anything
but go up in smoke.

Here I sit,
bare in my being.

Bleeding, grieving..

Patiently awaiting
the return
of what's missing.

Morning spent lying, gazing

turn into afternoons
snuggled in sheets
of lazy radiance.

Hands rest on skin
with languorous delight,

traveling amorously
with nowhere to be,

only knowing
where they want to go.

So many people wander
this earth aimlessly,

finding no peace
in the places they have been.

But in my travels,
I stumbled upon
the blue of your eyes,
the taste of your kiss,
and the warmth of your embrace.

I have wandered,
and I have found my home.

Love me spineless.

Not spinelessly,
without will or integrity.

But love me so hard and so fiercely
there are no bones left in my body.

Love me to where my vertebrae know no home,
where my limbs tremble when you're near.

Love me senseless.

Firm years cannot find her kneading heart

Oh, gently, times stood staring

Figures, handsome and graceful, moving.

Faded.

I want this. Yes, I want this.
God knows how bad.
Do you? Do you want this?
I would claw out my heart
and give it to you with a smile.
Do you see that?
Do you see me?
****.
Do you even ******* see me?!
Do you see me wasting away
with the effort of loving you?
Do you see these fingernails?
Cracked.
******.
Raw.
Do you see my ******* chest?
Do you see how empty I am?

The clouds roll over
and over
and over
until it is only
clouds we see.

Lost.
We're lost, and
it's raining.
The road is wet
and it is soaking
our pant legs through.

Riders on the storm.
That's us.
The bass thumps,
the drums beat,
and that's us.
Riders on the storm.

You are initials in the sand
under a warm June sky

Living and breathing

Eluding
the ocean
that tries to wash you away.

The door slammed
knocking a few transparent tears
off of its hinges.

The door has slammed
before.
But tonight...
Tonight was different.

That soft, lingering rattle
kept with it
the deep, consuming ache
of those,
once again,

left behind.

I have no wisdom tonight.

Maybe it's this bright orange pen.

Like it's ******* all of the energy

From my mind

Into the color of its ink.

Anything's possible, right?

Right?

I love you.
To all of the stars
and back.
Because to the moon
is not far enough.

I love you.
To the dawn of creation
around God
and back.
Twice.

I love you.
More than any quantitative
or qualitative measurement,
I love you.

I love you
more than you
will ever know.

There it was,
written so plainly
on your delicate face.

I could see it in your eyes,
wide eyes, intent on driving me mad.

I could see it everywhere,
in lips slightly parted, and
in ragged breaths never fully taking shape.

But above all else,
I could see it in your eyes.

Orbs deep brown,
dripping,
shifting,
over every curve of me.

Months had passed,
but there it was,
that heartbroken, blind desire
alive, again.

Living and breathing
in those deep,
brown,
eyes.

I remember our first kiss.
How I was so embarrassed,
So reluctant,
to let my lips to find yours.

And now I chuckle
at the handprints revealed
in my car's
foggy windows.

to you,
I was but a shadow
in the night.


invisible.

the sun rose with a vengeance.
then you opened your eyes,
and put the sky to shame.

I'm leaving.
Taking with me
the only
light
you have ever
known.
Baby,
I'm gone.
There will be
only
darkness
when you wake.

In the end
when our bodies
are weathered,
flesh decayed,
when we are
mixed with soil
and bugs and
roots of plants
still living,
I pray,
it is your bones
resting
beside mine.

Let your leg fall against my leg.
I'll rest my head on your shoulder.
No music.
Only the sound of your breath and mine
mixing in the quiet space
that runs between here
and the rest of our lives

I will kiss you anywhere and everywhere.

I will kiss you after your morning shower,
when your lips are warm and damp.

I will kiss you in a crowd,
behind your ear.

I will kiss you alone,
paying close attention to your safe, safe hands
and your short, square fingers.

I will kiss you at night,
on the small of you back
when it peeks from beneath your shirt
as you reach to turn off the bedside lamp.

I will kiss you in a storm.
Lightening and all.

I will kiss you when the raindrops become puddles,
and when the puddles become a flood.

And while the flood sweeps us away,
I will kiss you in the space
between the cresents of the waves.

I wish you were here with me.
Your arm around my shoulder,
fingertips tracing nonsense
across my skin.
My head on your chest,
knowing that the monsters
dreamt by the moving pictures
could not possibly reach us
because we have created
a fortress of oblivion
within the confines
of the blankets keeping us warm.

Keeping us together.

I was a fool .
I was a fool
to have thought
I could have
wanted anything
other than this.
Anyone,
other than
you.

This night is you.
Radiant.

Your eyes,
under this moon
and these stars,
brighter
than the sun
on its warmest day.

This night is us.

Our fingers
intertwined
tell the moon a story
of how to fill
the empty space between.

This night is me.

My heart pounding
as all the little stars
gather together
in my stomach
while you run your fingers
down my arm.

Time continues,
but we are here,
now,

Effulgent

shining brilliantly forth
into our night.

Distance is a funny thing, isn't it?
You're there.
I'm here.

I can pace,
and pace,
and I can gather miles in my soles
pacing these halls,
             these stairs,
             these empty rooms.

But my footsteps
can only burn holes
in ***** carpet.

They can not
carry me
to you.

the cool fire
burning in those
blue eyes
is all consuming,
setting aflame
everything in which
you cast your
gaze upon.

Surrounding me, dying souls.
Infested souls.
Sunken souls.
Souls that are drifting, floating.
Souls trapped by the grip of the enemy.
Innocent, handcrafted souls.

They're coming home.

I'm being suffocated by the weight of this mad, mad world.
I am weeping, adding salt and water to the flood of my children returning from the battle raging beneath my Heavenly sanctuary.

All because of a declaration.
An act of malice guiding unfit soldiers into the strangling hands of war.

Souls that never had a chance to live out the lives I set before them,
now stand before me.

The only thing I can say to their questioning eyes is this:

beauty is born from destruction. styles and rhythms and words will emerge from these malevolent years.

Lives that were stolen by signatures
and trenches
and gas
and bacteria ridden bugs
and all things not made by my gentle hands,
Will be replaced by a stronger Lost Generation,
Who will turn this world, page by page, nearer to the world I intended for my children.

Perhaps, I'll
be a cloud.

I'll drift and
I will roam.

I'll collect crystals
of cold nothing and

I will never be enough
to stop the rain.

When the
machine
takes over
and grinds
your bones,
skin, and
organs
into
useless, insignificant,
easily forgotten
pieces of
organic matter,
that's it.

That's exactly it.  

You find yourself.

go
ahead.
shimmy along.
i'll lace
up
my chucks
and
watch you
*******
dance
while I
walk
back into
the nothing
from
which
I
came.

Let's defy gravity, baby.

Let's defy that *****
until her forceful hands shake us
back to reality.

We'll rise above this dreary world
and play leap frog among the stars.

We'll smoke one with the moon
while he
spills secrets about the Sun.

We'll get drunk off faith
and throw a prayer or two up ahead
for the Man Upstairs.

When the magic fades,
We'll hold one another as the law comes back into effect
and we slowly drift through the clouds
claiming lazily
that the moon prefers Southern Comfort.

Forgive me,
I can't ever remember your name.
Although your existence brings me comfort
on slushy days
when the winter sky is grey.
Walking your roads,
boots crunch gravel,
securing the smell that long ago
seeped through your wood,
into my sole.

Perhaps the truth
turned oblivious.

And the boy
knew to whisper
persuasion
softly.

Dark shoulders
urged
a moist
smile.

Touch awake the
disturbing
nights.

Her outgrown,
innocent
masquerade:






                   faded.

Flimsy hands honor our night.

Rusty,
aged,
perfectly insistent.

Circumstances
kissed his voice.

Leave what you promised.

Welcome to my web, baby.
Better get comfortable.
I'll spin you,
Ensnare you in my thread.
Until you are nothing but juice in my core.

-a.r.r.