I once killed a man.

Slew him with a joke
He laughed so hard that
He choked on his own spit
And drowned in the pooling salvia.

He died happily though,
And, in the end, isn’t that all that matters?

*** & Coke secure,
We sat back and
Scanned the surroundings:
     Dingy room? Check.
     Dancing candles? Check.
     Dark humor? Check.
Elements all in place,
We were officially ready
To conduct our séance
Off a twenty-dollar Ouija Board
Hot off the presses from the
Local Toy ‘R Us.

As silly as it seems
We felt a tad closer to you
Especially when we asked:
“Why’d you have to leave so soon?”
And you simply signed back:
“Because applesauce, man. It just ******* exists.”
Inadvertently proving the profound:
There’s **** in heaven, too.

We’re no fortune tellers
No time travelers —
God isn’t whispering His
Distant plans into our ears.

We’re just hopefuls
Speculating our futures
On 11:11 wishes
& fallen eyelash kisses.

Next time you see a shooting star
Harness its magic
Soak in that you’re made of star-stuff
And don’t you dare close your eyes
To breathe out another fruitless prayer.

Fingertips kissing
Out of tune piano keys
Music is music.

Cliff diving off of Saturn,
Catching a ride on the back of a comet,
Passing red dust and celestial clouds,
Crashing and burning into an ambiguous atmosphere,
Sounds a lot like LSD,
But feels more like loving you.

Chapped lips
Remind me of
Cracked concrete
And how you’d say
Step on a crack and
I’ll never come back!

Except a tree branch
Uprooted the sidewalk
And I fell forward and heart first
Hoping you’d catch me by the shoulder
But you stood true to your word
Because by the time I looked up
I saw your shadow slink away
I sat with scraped knees and
Contused love.

We made a fruit tree
Stringing store bought bananas
On sycamore branches
Sick of more dead winter
For even the freshest snow
Coated Creation’s color
But the brilliant yellow
Brought us back home
To our sunshine memories.