Fantastically fashioned fingers,
  running smoothly through hair;
past present post-
  Father Time struck by Sand Man's stare.


Heavenly hanging hair,
  draping gently over lips;
tantalizing teasing tendrils-
  Aphrodite's mien, Venus' hips.

Lusciously loving lips,
  smiling softly at wandering eyes;
delirious delighted daze-
   Pyramus and Thisbe's kiss--butterflies.

Efficaciously effervescent...
  enchantingly endearing...
    enticingly euphoric...
      exultantly excited...
[Simply] ethereal! Eyes,
  diamonds, starlight, life, of Earth, sky, and sea;
bejeweled boundless bless'ed-
   If thou were Medusa, stone I'd be so readily.

Simply said Shakespeare,
  thou art the sun;
falsely framed fairness-
  for the sun is not brightest,
    tis You tis You,
      my wonderful, beautiful One.

The brave are always the first to die.
So as it was it came as no surprise
That the last man left on earth alive,
A coward to the core,
Who sold it all, for the twinkle of an eye.
Alone with the wind and tumultuous sky
He looked to the heavens and prayed to die.

Left to pick up all of the broken pieces
Of yet another fallen species,
Adam walked disheveled and defeated.
Picking off the scraps of fallen bones,
Humanity long forgotten and disowned,
Foraging through ashen fields
Where the seeds of death had long been sown.

As thin as a rake,
Vultures followed in wake
As he warred and carved his way.
Through ghostly roads
Derelict towns and abodes
Down past the streets of decay.
And just when he felt he could endure no more
He found himself at an abandoned mall.
The word 'Eden'
Carved upon the wall.

Ravenous in hunger,
Adam slathered and growled
When he stumbled into the reptile house
And saw what he had found.
A snake rich in protein,
Sustenance abound
But Adam was not the only one
In that house to be found.

A scurry,
A shadow,
The faintest of movements in the air,
But yes,
Something stirred,
A woman in rags, teeth bared.

Adam handed her half of his snake
And for a moment all was still.
Till she wolfed it down at the speed of sound
A feat you would never believe,
She looked sharply at Adam
Eyes narrowed and said,
"I'm Eve."

Stupid white girl.
We are not allowed to do anything.
We're prim and proper, white girls.
We are not allowed to fight back.
Put us in our place, white girls.
We are not allowed real work.
We still want our twenty three cents back.

The child of fair skin and blue eyes.
But with all my female privilege,
Came a nasty stamp on my body.
Like a watermark.
FEMALE.
I have heard that when a woman looks in the mirror, she sees a woman.
But when a man looks in the mirror, he sees a human.

Even with that watermark, our pale skin is used as a canvas.
And everyone else has been handed the tools to color in our curves.
Covering us in blue and black and purple and red.
Redrawing our minds so they cannot process the discrimination,
Painting over our tears so our feelings can be buried,
Manufacturing open legs when you want them,
Closed when you don't.
Erasing the lips we use to speak out,
Erasing the eyes we use to see all of this.

You think just because you held the brush,
Just because you created this monstrosity of a "masterpiece"
You get to claim ownership of this piece of artwork
That you blatantly disregard
Is my BODY.

The "fe" you tack onto "male"
Does not stand for Free Entry.
The "wo" you tack onto "man"
Does not stand for Wipe Out.

Women are barely able hold a pencil.
I was lucky to hold one long enough to draw myself
A conscience, a backbone, legs to stand on, and a mind.
We were only taught how to use the back end of that pencil
To erase our mouth and keep the secrets.
But these days the secrets are keeping themselves.

I will not be put in a glass case
You will not charge admission
To have people come and analyze me.
Buy me.
Give me value.
Categorize me.
Preserve me the way you created.

You are no artists.
You are vandals.

I had to walk out of physics today,
make my way to the back of the room
shoot for the door
with my hands on my hips.
Just started pacing.
I just stated pacing and pacing and pacing.

I followed the thin grey lines between the linoleum tiles
with my toes
counting every second I was out of class
and weighing that against how many more it would take
on a chance against hell
to get me back in there again.

I wasn't smart.
I never had been.
I just filled in bubbles correctly and I wrote
all the right things on a convincing, cliché
college paper.
I don't even know why I took physic,
but it sounded like a good idea when I was eighteen
and scared
and had some woman with a long braid screaming at me,
"advising" me that it was the "right direction."

I didn't even know who I was then so how could she.

I could mouth off a good response or two and I
probably embody every great literary character
in commercial fiction that is
the guy in the grey skinny jeans reading Shakespeare
in the corner of the dining hall.
Well, I'm not.
I'm not some stereotype for your next
creative writing assignment.
I just happen to think my *** looks good in skinny jeans,
I actually hate Shakespeare,
and the corner of the dining hall has the best air conditioning.
It's that simple.
There's your answer.

But my fingertips were shaking and my mind was racing
and there I was
just pacing and pacing and pacing
because this
is *******.
This class is *******.
This college is *******.
And the whole world
might as well be *******
right along with it.

I never went back into class that day.
Which ***** actually because I lost a good backpack and calculator,
but in the long run it worked out alright
because here I am
writing this
and getting paid for it,
not that I'm greedy or anything
(I get paid a whole lot if you care to know)
but I'm writing more than just about
that day I couldn't breathe in physics class.

I'm writing to tell you
that there's quite a great deal of superficial things in this world
and if you find yourself a part of it
I'm demanding you leave.
Leave your good notebook, your steady job, your filthy marriage.
Leave it because it's actually true no matter how stupid it sounds
that life is too short
and things that are real
need to be attacked and clutched onto
if you want them to last.

I guess I can thank that institution actually
for teaching me everything I never wanted to know,
and for getting me to where I am
with multiple publications, a book signing or to, a beautiful wife,
three kids, a screenplay, oh
and a big
F U
to those that said I would never do it.

(Dr. Hefer, that means you).

A blue bubble blew up
on my screen one night at 12:31.
I knocked a glass of melted ice
onto the carpet and it bounced
like rubber off the floor,
rolling under my bed and hitting the box beneath it.
Your name like a gunshot through
my insomniac mind, crippled
with dreams
I swear
really happen sometimes.

"I need youu tto buy me a ** tel"
As if I could instantly flip money from my fingertips
and have it lie in the palm of your hand
to slide over the marble counter for a key in exchange.
"I need to get out of here honestlyy"
As if I could come carry you myself up the stairs
because elevators scare you.
"No you come here"
I can't, sweetheart.


As if I could be on a plane in the next ten minutes,
fly so far to where you are.
As if I could land in your arms one more time,
and promise you that everything
would be okay--
tell you that you're fine.

I can't, sweetheart.

We sweat out the holy stuff.
You used my ribs like one uses
the rough side of a matchbox
striking up your fingertips
to light the rest of my skin on fire.

I'm glad I was just another burnt tip
in your collection.
I'm glad it was an easy discard.

I took a mental photograph
of you in that moment--
Bare chest, pulling down your boxers,
holding my face like one molds a statue,
bite marks on my jaw line.

I smoldered in your sheets,
you kicked me out of bed.
This must be what Pompeii  looked like
after all the ashes cleared.

I'm glad I was just another pretty girl
you liked to watch go up in flames.

I'm glad you didn't ask me to stay.