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218 · Oct 2018
In the Field
Ashley Moor Oct 2018
Lately
I’ve been closing my eyes
reimagining the hieroglyphs
of springtime
at your door
and the way the light
touched your form
but now it’s just me
and the moon
redesigning the colors
in your room
sketching rivers and lakes
into the tombs
of our love.

Tell me what you’re thinking
though I know
that it isn’t of me
but she
is still in every
night vision
every daydream
half asleep
half turned to the universe
of her design
elements of refracting memories
words
that have so long since
been my curse.

Time
has made a beggar of me
when October has
dug her nails into
the April on my mind
mouth full of planet
but chest full of wind—
she is closed to me again
her form is a mountain
when mine is just a grin
just a shadowy friend
of her own
on the ground
in the field
where our love story
would end.
A past love/life.
198 · Feb 2018
window sex
Ashley Moor Feb 2018
Only two hours here
in the city
and I am
writhing
at the hands of you
oh powerful
woman god
strange Phoenix
of whims
and love
and hate
I love you
in time
to the city.
197 · Jun 2020
97.4 Percent White
Ashley Moor Jun 2020
The town I’m from
has a history
an excommunication
of diversity
at the helm
of self-serving
Caucasian propriety.
My sister is 50 percent
black -
her ancestors once
ran towards the freedom
promised
in the small towns
like this one.
This small town -
97.4 percent white -
instead hung her ancestors
in the town square,
jeered at their attempts
to live among the same people
who were proud
to live in a land of freedom.
Only certain freedoms
are allowed, however,
in towns like this one -
only a freedom
of a certain color.
192 · Oct 2018
Cowboy Horoscope
Ashley Moor Oct 2018
Underneath the palms
of eternity
somewhere in the desert
of my convictions
my heart is aching
for you
but my slate isn’t clean
without the southern
whippoorwill
of my youth
still embedded into
these streets
and spines
of my childhood.

Yet
I am only innocent
at the hands of you
reckoning time
backwards
and forwards
cutting these chains loose,
you say:
cherish this day
you aren’t living without
my love pressed up against
your mouth
that of your running kind
I am sure
that I have committed no crime:
I don’t cage you
I don’t command stillness
I only know
which way to run
with you.
Ashley Moor Feb 2019
There is something
about tonight
that reminds me
of my childhood dreams—
coming alive right
at insomnia’s peak,
sweet, naive
and daring
in the way that
they stirred awake
my reality.
Dark houses filled
with space and quiet,
suburbs in the city
that gleamed with romance—
a career and sky high
ambition.
From dreaming
quietly in the dark
to forgetting to trace
my fingertips along
my deepest desires—
but aren’t these just
the sins of woman?
Overdressed
and unseen,
sitting down
instead of
dancing under the stars,
remaining unimaginative
in our grown lives
instead of
lying awake at night
and dreaming.
169 · Oct 2018
Lit Up
Ashley Moor Oct 2018
See
the summer ending
at the end of our palms
so let’s wait til tomorrow
to set all of our plans
into motion
see
the green
of the locomotives
against the track
of my small town
and they’ll speed past
when I admit
that I’ve always
had a penchant
for everything you hate
for anything as ancient
as the fears that grow
in your garden
the ones that you water
with my resolve
it’s your eyes
that wrinkle
the backs of my hands
not the time
I spent mending
the fences between us
even months after
you’re not a stranger
the lower east side
echoes with our laughter
now I have someone else
who holds me together
but no amount of wrinkles
on my skin
can separate me
from the sharp inhalation
that your presence brings
but I hesitate
when I see you wringing
your hands
on the street corner
with your friends
my darling
my baby
the lights on my nightstand
keep your ghost lit up
reminding me
of the park
at night
when you found my heart
before the veil
of dark
found it’s way
to every highway
and slow breeze
in the mountains past
the place you grew up
long before the gin
found it’s way into your cup
and now
after you
I’m shedding skin
until I’m see-through
enough for my veins
to call out your name
so you’ll know the honesty
behind the words:
“I’ll see you again.”
For Amy
166 · May 2019
Summer, Gently
Ashley Moor May 2019
It is
that time of year
again
when the rain
laps gently
against the seasons
when your eyes
are bright—
if there is a God
she is there
in the thunder
righteous
unforgiving
ebbing against
our throats—
children of the earth
it is now
the time of year again
to dream.
162 · Jul 2019
A Mile From the Shore
Ashley Moor Jul 2019
These summer days
I long only for a life
far from the pictures
scratched on to my arms.
Where has she been?
What has she seen?
I see her a mile
out from the shore
pulling flowers from the stream
a glitter in a dream
perpetually
she turns
the dagger in me
an answer of how
of when
the light which dazzles
and catches
what could have been.
Old.
Ashley Moor Jul 2020
I want your body to remember me
I want your eyes to cast shadows
I want your skin to unearth creation
I want your mouth to quiet storms
I want your wiles to sink ships
I want your hands to unravel time
I want your chest to relearn revelry
I want your body to remember me
90 · May 2020
The Party
Ashley Moor May 2020
The glow of the party
reflected in your eyes,
the way you smiled
at me in the passenger seat—
you did it all
with such ease.
Every night
my bedroom is filled
with the unearthly wiles
of you—
the keeper
of all my future plans,
of the beautiful endings
to each night.
Now I know
I’m gonna be alright
I’m gonna be alright
I’m gonna be alright.

— The End —