Step right up and buy some dreams
He's got tattooed arms and he'll propose to you with cubic zirconia rings, promises of hearts warmed and shiny things
Beware of what the future brings, he'll spread your broken wings and let you fall
Right into a pit of tar and feathers
You'll think you belong together
But he's a trainwreck clad in ink and leather
And he'll sever the tethers and let you go it alone, ignore your pleas for affection but his spell is like an infection- it won't go away unless treated with equal aggression
What's his motive? Why break all these hearts, why ***** out girls like spent candles
I don't think he even knows how to handle himself
But one things for sure- this boy sells dreams, don't you buy them.

and as i tap on my keyboard making noises unspeakable i notice that
somewhere between the Y and the I is a U, and I wonder why apple would set up such a cliché
a metaphor I would want to use in times like this where my writing is vulnerable and uncouth
i can’t even be angry with you, against you pressing on your V line since
i knew the movie was bad
i mean i just knew it as soon as the VCR ****** in the thick, boxy, tape
that this film was going to be just like the others— immature and messy,
you were unable to articulate the simplest of my sentences

insert line here

you didn’t even look new, you weren't even an opportunity
you told me you were willing to be the elevated beam in my single music note that we would create harmonies even my mother would like to hear
but she hated you
and you didn’t understand why I liked Bach more than Mozart, or why I didn’t like Mozart at all
you weren't a gentleman, but I am beginning to think those don't exist until well into our 30s
when our hearts are tender enough to feel empathy
you don’t deserve a poem, or the image of heaven

the capital letters you rained in my text messages made my eyes open a little bit wider
i went to cvs and i bought the twix the blanket and the *****
we used to do that together
asian men still write me poems for the morning, i walk out of dorm rooms with water that never knew the cold
and my head it; pounds from dehydration, its been a while since I’ve been in love
but some us are
in love i mean
the dumb ones, the despicable ones
how are they achieving something the kids with 4.0 gpa’s couldn't make an equation for

insert lines here

and why the hell do i keep looking at my phone, waiting for your name to shine bright telling me what to do what to say

insert lines here

why did you sleep with her, on her, side by side, parallel making hexagons and trapezoids keeping me out of the loop
why did i say ok

Fire burns in passion untold
Ice reflects and refracts in the cold
And it must be said:
Please watch your head
Their burns can scar you 'till you're old

A lexical set or a rule of three
Rhyming words or an analogy.
Iambic pentameter or just free verse
Acrostic, nostalgic without a rehearse.  

Pathetic Fallacy with cloud and rain
Feelings on a page without restrain.
A ballard, a couplet a villanelle or two
AA BB it's up to you.

Personification with trees that moan
Onomatopoeia with frogs that groan.
Similes slither like a snake in sand
Metaphor branches are our hands.

Alliteration angels always await
Sitting on the symbolic gate.
Assonace with early birds and worms
Writing it all in poetry terms.

The vision intrudes,
  stealing ink from my pen

A thief in the night,
—leaving words that portend

A warning’s been given,
   its mantle thrown down

But truth will speak over,
—what darkness avows

(Villanova Pennsylvania:  April, 2017)