They come on to my clean
sheet of paper and leave a Rorschach blot.
They do not do this to be mean,
they do it to give me a sign
they want me, as Aubrey Beardsley once said,
to shove it around till something comes.
Clumsy as I am,
I do it.
For I am like them -
both saved and lost,
tumbling downward like Humpty Dumpty
off the alphabet.

Each morning I push them off my bed
and when they get in the salad
rolling in it like a dog,
I pick each one out
just the way my daughter
picks out the anchoives.
In May they dance on the jonquils,
wearing out their toes,
laughing like fish.
In November, the dread month,
they **** the childhood out of the berries
and turn them sour and inedible.

Yet they keep me company.
They wiggle up life.
They pass out their magic
like Assorted Lifesavers.
They go with me to the dentist
and protect me form the drill.
At the same time,
they go to class with me
and lie to my students.

O fallen angel,
the companion within me,
whisper something holy
before you pinch me
into the grave.

Scraped till bled, alive after they have her dead
To be left alone, she dreams of silence
At the foot of the lunatic's hill
With the mangy beasts of the wild
Which won't let you live they tell her.
They tell her their many many stories
With conclusions and morals
As she looks up at the ravens in the sky.
Hopeless.
Isn't she?

They hear the thick ripples pouring gently over the rocks.
A muddy path silently walks into the heart of the forest.
Just him and her,
the wild and the delicate,
and the voices of the night hiding unseen among the branches.
The sun is going to set.
This evening too, it will settle on the sea
Like a wise old man, walking back home
with crinkled eyes that have seen so much.

The wet mud is their bed.
He held her palm against the cold ground,
his fingers into the wetness.
Heartbeats
Her eyes fluttered open for a moment
She saw a quiet amber sun sailing on the infinite sea.
The water will devour all the daylight she thought.
How much more could she be lost?

Tiny silver stars peep out
The sky is a shade of naked blue
The sound of the water grew nearer,
and she held him so tight.

And when he'd get her eyes wet,
he'd just hug her closer to his chest
But he never stopped, because
everything is suddenly more beautiful,
and they always kept wanting more.

A nerd who loves
numbers and letters.
A nerd who wears geeky
glasses and attends all
her classes. A nerd who
bathes in literature every
night and can speak to him
in the language of poetry.
He fell in love with a nerd
like me* ~

Let's paint stripes on our
skin. Let's start with lines
of black and white. Why
not wear masks as we
begin ? We can be crazy
and wild. Touch your stripes.
Become alive. Feel the rush ,
feel the fun. Feel the tingle
from your paint brush. Feel
the untamed animal you have
trapped under your skin. Feel
the adrenaline kicking from
within* ~