I come back
for promise.

The tea leaves
told me it would be
all it should be.

My bags were packed
the same way a child packs a bag,
everything vital
was left
on
the
bed.

I took satisfying trinkets
because pollution
dulls.

Oh,
I
am
at
your doorstep
once
more.

The lady in the techni-colored
shawl
with eyes like a rainbow,
brought the water to a boil,
dropped in the leaves,
told me
my future
would be ready
in a second,

I'd know everything in due time,

and it was.

The tea leaves told me
in a raspy, Pall Mall
voice
that everything was going
to be
all it should be.

So,
here I am,
at your doorstep,
and everything vital
hums through woven lips
on your bed.

I have come for a teddy bear
that I have hugged
too long.

She was a child once. A child young
And innocent and full of energy and she
was hurt. Cuts and scrapes can be recovered from
easily. Mindset cannot be replaced. Now,
she wears a neon sign that flashes: Broken.
That screams: Help me. That pleads: Save me.
And yet, her face is a page full of smiles and lies.
She is the girl that every boy wants and every girl
wants gone. She is lipstick smears and
morning after pills and [she is cutting herself in the bathroom
again] She is beauty at the point of dissolve.
Her mask of make-up cracks and in those cracks,
You can see a wall of tears. She was a child once:
a child young and innocent and full of energy.
And now, now she is on the evening news.
She is the daughter every mother is ashamed of.
Docket number 7356. A DUI added to the mix. She
Is the one at the high school reunion everyone says:
what happened to her? And her answer? What is it?
"I grew up." She was a child once. Then she grew up.

you had birds in your mouth and sunlight dripping from your eyelashes.
i promised i wouldn't speak if you wouldn't change faces twice an hour.
we made conversation under a tree and sleep-walked through your kitchen.
i couldn't stare for your poetry disguised as fingers, always moved your hands.

i opened your window and slid to the street, took a walk with the recycling.
my hands looked tired the next morning, and you wouldn't take no.
when the lights fell asleep, we ran for the boats and slipped into the water.
the moon smiled and pulled us apart, i never matched your shoes again.