twisted bicycles and empty pop cans line the longest street in the world-
making my way ever closer to the frozen city I catch a glimpse of the relics of yesterday-
paper bags and frost covered couches-
chilled passengers seeking the brief warmth of the morning commute-
sunlight and frost dance together and create crisp partnerships forever more-
the bus driver has no trust in cats-
the great dane out with it's friend sparks memories of my past-
bitten in the face yet still loving dogs with such grace-
the frozen city awakes as the relics of last night claim their place-

I saw texting girls
collide with semi-trucks,
and though they lost the fight,
well, they left their mark.

I've kissed a wrecking ball,
and as my building fell,
I felt like a petal on the wind,
I hope she misses me.

You are an angel,
wading through a drunken hell,
and I have called out,
but you are afraid of listening.

I've seen true believers
spend lifetimes bellowing about regret,
and I've seen the nomads write
laws in understanding sand.

And when our haste comes to claim us,
don't pull your hair out
or place ash upon your brow,
cling to the love on your serpent's tongue.

The pure are always proud, stones in hand,
us ***** ones perpetually bleed,
and crawl upon the worn ground.
Sister, if you remember me, why haven't you found me?

I overheard that the watches are tired of ticking,
the calendar hung itself,
your mother's eyes are dry,
and all our crimes will fall from on high.

She leaned in close to me
and She whispered, "there is no secret"
but I turned away,
and I held my hands closer than love.

She leaned in so close to me
that our noses pressed against glass,
and She held my cheekbones in the curve of Her thumb
until I was light
and pulsing
"there is no secret." She told me
again
again
still I did not believe Her.

She held me closer
until we were bone against bone, our flesh
unbuttoned and heaped on the floor.
but I turned away, bones clattering
we were just two skeletons in a closet, and I yearned for Her
"but there is no secret" she would tell me,
so I closed my eyes and wept, waiting only
for a simple answer.

“there is no secret”
She hummed to my cold, solid tears
Her thumbs held where my cheekbones had been,
eyes gleaming with my emotion,
“look at yourself.”

in a dark, cluttered room where nothing shone before,
Her fingertips glowed,
and I felt myself
covered in feelings I distantly recognized.
She unbuttoned my shell and laid it
on the floor next to my skin and bones
smiling, She said “there is no secret”
and I held Her, nose pressed against glass
nose pressed against nose
nose
nothing.

It’s been weeks,
and the refrigerator stands empty.
Except for our bed sheet,
nothing has remained on the clothesline-
everything else has been carried away
by the wind.
In the old parking lot,
strangers sometimes find bras and underwear.
Handkerchiefs and
your black socks.
It’s been weeks
and sometimes I accidentally reach out
to your side of the bed.

In my sleep,
dreams,
we are civil.
We are friends.

We laugh and smile like we used to.
We talk and share secrets.

You are no longer my enemy.
Someone I loathe

hate

In my sleep,
dreams,
we are not lovers again.
We are friends.

And that is all I ask for.

In your absence the days sigh
and heave. I can still feel
the winged ripples

of your feathered fragrance
fluttering in fragments
through petals

of sunlight in the blossoming
dawn.  How can a person
want too much

intimacy with another?  If I could lift
up these memories like handfuls
of sand, they would sink

through the darkened cracks
of my fingers, sifting
into the shapeless

mass of reality.  I have sewn
these unspoken wants
on a delicate veil,

a tenuous drape billowing
in the shifting breeze
of your departure.