Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
CB Hooper Dec 2017
i can fall in love
knees awkward trembling
you shivered beside my car
parked on the lawn
drunk at 4AM
kissed forehead neck cheeks eyes brow jaw
i don’t mind clumsy boots
don’t even mind thick southern drawl
i heard what i wanted to hear
you were jealous in the garage
attracted to my jawline
and the way my face spreads
when i smile
you kept cursing
as i sat upon your hips and
licked your tongue raw
expletives rolling from
your lips onto mine
air mattress in guest room
you laid my glasses on the floor
and held my skin until it bled
onto calloused fingertips
sore with the guilt of our actions
your infidelity
but both of our need
i can fall in love
with anything
CB Hooper Dec 2017
once the sun met the moon
as we sat on a mountain cliff
it felt like years
our moments
my moon-silk and midnights
your burning eyes and fire days
i felt the earth move
rolling its weight under the dusty rocks
my lungs contracted,
my chest expands still,
to think i may be hollow like a bell
while you burn through energy and
cast it away.
once we could have danced
it was a thursday afternoon
but the rain soaked through my
first-date blouse and
it all ended way too soon.
CB Hooper Nov 2017
i lie beside the open window
and let droplets from the storm
spray down upon the crystal clear slither of skin,
wrist and arm,
holding the curtain ajar.
i hear the notes like pirouettes,
the clatter on the faded brick.
it all comes clean with the storm.
collected like lost summer days
i sat waiting on your return.
and into pores, through blood stream,
i let it in like you
like the window open wide
as most were simple streams,
it and you were the tide.

mostly closing signs.
how long can droplets form
crystal clear moonlit storm
semi-circular on skin
why did i let it in?

but vast, the mountain-valley-sea.
the northern-south, western-east.
like window, mouth, my star-ly speech
i spoke in circles, or patterned veils
connecting points of light into darkened clouds.
let rest what lies, let stand what weaves
colored perfume, the sprinkled streets
the path before and the rift between.
i saw the sin long ago
curl within and build its nest
but this window
only works one way.
CB Hooper Sep 2017
you knew i was there
writhing, gasping for air.
you knew.
my chest still brimming
for the eyes i saw on the ceiling
as i contorted in the passenger seat.
how i hoped that you would
save me, how
i hoped that you would come.
but seconds and minutes,
two hours,
i sobbed, but quietly.
shouting did no good
under the weight.
you broke surface in no time.
i imagined you frantic,
calling for help.
save her, please. please,
survive, be alive when they pull you
from the wreckage, please.

i did not drown in the river.
i suffocated in the unrequited
when you walked away
from the scene.
CB Hooper Aug 2017
maybe i have never known fear.
is that this, seeping through my pores
holding my tongue steady, my feet
firm on the floor?
they say you have to have something
to lose. check that box. eyes
wild, hair overgrown, fingertips
unsteadily tracing patterns into my
bones.
something like a nightmare, sleep
paralysis. the only thing i see, speeding
heart, head pounding with possible
plans of exit, but cannot move, will
not.
but it is everything. everything. ever-
ything.
and i am terrified.
CB Hooper Jul 2017
i hold you in the void,
somewhere between the future and now.
crawl into me,
eternal water bearer-
the life of this world and the next.
your crystal home ascending into
my fragile light.
you were a child with no weakness,
flawless to a fault.
and as eternity crumbles,
i will keep you in my palm.
CB Hooper Jul 2017
is it copper or satin?
i told myself
this would never happen.
a guard in armor
stood before the lock,
now gone.
is it copper or satin,
the contours of skin?
i lay my weaponry
at the feet of the one
who tamed all dragons
and laid the Romans to rest,
the crest of Vulcan on the breast.
or maybe Neptune?
i spent the summer in June.
god, the fabric i cannot discern.
a windstorm at noon?
please tell me, losing sleep.
the way the light hits
in copper-satin waves.
it breaks.
Next page