"I'm just stepping out for a bit"
           you casually mentioned
                            before a dispassionate hug
                            stole you from the warm
                            glow of your own kitchen
                          
                    and I must admit I believed you
                    where an image has remained for
                    all this time in my mind of your
                    return home

     but life continues on beneath the shadow
     left by your departure, dimmed sunlight,
     warm rain
                          and now the center ring
                          with word of the dropping
                          temperatures, the fire at
                          apartment 12D and of
                          the car that carries you
                          back to me
             wait
                                     what was that?  
a dream of mine
getting ever so
twisted up
in reality

It's a good feeling this
positive vibration of the spirit at
1 forty 8 in the dark
which
        dare I allow my fresh naive thought to venture out
              into our sleeping world
convinces me that
tomorrow is going to be
a great day

You hold the fruit of my pathways
during storms that could chill the shores
of the blackest hearts.  
Forming bracelets that encircle my soul
until I am down on my knees
knowing wherever you go I will follow
because I am your other part.

You hold in store a truth that sweeps across me
with a brilliance speaking slowly and softly
like the stars affection for the moon.  
My heart beats in solid measure with your own,
same as starlight removes
a shadows downcast of gloom.

You spill into my sleep and kiss me with understanding
behind the blossoming beauty calling from years
of not being held,
breathing life into that which never beat with love.
Until what mattered most
found it adored the kiss finally felt.

My days ripple with the finest occupation of creation,
pressing against my tongue
as a breeze of the sweetest wine.  
I hold your words on the air of eternity
and pray they always tell me
you will hold me
whenever I am looking for
all I need to find.

I became a criminal when I fell in love.
Before that I was a waitress.

I didn't want to go to Chicago with you.
I wanted to marry you, I wanted
Your wife to suffer.

I wanted her life to be like a play
In which all the parts are sad parts.

Does a good person
Think this way? I deserve

Credit for my courage--

I sat in the dark on your front porch.
Everything was clear to me:
If your wife wouldn't let you go
That proved she didn't love you.
If she loved you
Wouldn't she want you to be happy?

I think now
If I felt less I would be
A better person. I was
A good waitress.
I could carry eight drinks.

I used to tell you my dreams.
Last night I saw a woman sitting in a dark bus--
In the dream, she's weeping, the bus she's on
Is moving away. With one hand
She's waving; the other strokes
An egg carton full of babies.

The dream doesn't rescue the maiden.

the coffee was cold.
a day old.
i heated it.
poured it.
fought through it.

put on a b-film.
something about crap
films made our lives
feel more fulfilling.

we laughed.
exposed every flaw.
we held hands.
snuck
loving glances.

i have to wake up in three
hours, but all i can think
is life is luck,
even for the dumbest of us,
when you tell your
eyes to open up.

If my lips appear to fall upon your thoughts,
that is where
they are supposed to be.  
At night,
when your ears hear pages
of the faintest verse
whispering on your neck,
it is my way of telling you everything
will be alright,
go back to sleep,
it is just me.

If you feel the softest kiss in the morning
as if the sun
has filled the passageways
of your heart
with everything you miss.
The radiance you feel in these spaces
is not a dream
in which you have fallen,
nor random chance,
it is my way
of sending you bliss.

If your temperature rises in a delightful instant,
eternally warming your soul
with a drink
and leaving your heart glowing.
It is because it holds the promises
my heart placed long ago
in a chalice called my love
where you can drink
of a warmth overflowing.

I am always with you
even on those nights
that seem to never end.  
I walk delicately across your mind
tying the strings of your heart
to my own.
You can hear my voice
when my lips fall upon your thoughts
whispering,
“I love you, My Heart,
I’m coming home.”

Never try to trick me with a kiss
Pretending that the birds are here to stay;
The dying man will scoff and scorn at this.

A stone can masquerade where no heart is
And virgins rise where lustful Venus lay:
Never try to trick me with a kiss.

Our noble doctor claims the pain is his,
While stricken patients let him have his say;
The dying man will scoff and scorn at this.

Each virile bachelor dreads paralysis,
The old maid in the gable cries all day:
Never try to trick me with a kiss.

The suave eternal serpents promise bliss
To mortal children longing to be gay;
The dying man will scoff and scorn at this.

Sooner or later something goes amiss;
The singing birds pack up and fly away;
So never try to trick me with a kiss:
The dying man will scoff and scorn at this.

I.
I spent the night trying
to stare god in the face
with a bottle of ***** and
a pack of cigarettes.
Michael laughed because
he says I keep looking for things
that can't be found.
I'm constantly setting myself up
for disappointment.

II.
The sky wore a starry face
and inviting as it may be
it was a reminder that the sun
will consume our planet one day  
and my son will be the only one that will
think of me for short periods of time,
at random moments, throughout some days.

...I guess that nothing else really matters.

III.
I have too many questions, Mother;
none which I really want answers for.
the truth is heavy and
I'm lifting my limit.
So will you just tell me it will be okay.

IV.
A drunken embrace has
left me with blues.
He said "I've never kissed a stranger."
and I asked him if he'd like to try.
Lips holding each other like hands;
It felt like EVERYTHING
to not be so alone for one moment.

V.
In your car,
a song playing on the radio,
every note caressed my memory
like a finger ran softly down my naked spine
and I felt for the first time in a long time
not afraid of everything.