you caught me in a **** show
you watched me falling down
you know i've never been one
to pick myself up off the ground

you caught me in a slip stream
i was aimlessly drifting down
you knew just how to call me
so i would hear the sound

you caught me in a tidal wave
i was tumbling all around you
the moon is high and full tonight
and i'm so glad i found you

you caught me in a fly trap
on a sweltering summer day
my tongue stuck to your paper
in so many different ways

you caught me like a fire fly
in a ***** mason jar
i imagined you as my clear night sky
you saw me as your star

you caught me like a coughing fit
and i could not speak to say
that i will be right there to comfort you
when you are afraid

I thought
I was just going to write
a poem about your eyes
but then I caught a glimpse
of the nape of your neck
and your throat
and your ***** line
and I watched a bead of sweat
trickle down your heaving chest

I thought
I was going to be fine
but then I saw your cleavage
and I melted into sand
and I sank into the ocean

I thought
your eyes were the moon
and I was being tossed by the tides
but then you turned away
and I drowned in self-doubt

i peeked into your secret

i unbottuned your sensitivity
with your own sarcasm

you blew my vietnam

my heart is a touchy speaker cable
and you sparked me up

now
i am empty beer bottles
oscillating in your hand
and then you set me down

i am your nostalgia and
you can only think of bad things
like bruised knees and gout
and that summer you
had walking pneumonia and syphilis
and you cried every night
into your mother's arms

i am the cancer you faked
in order to gain attention

i am that boy that fell for it
and gave you syphilis

i am your shaved head
on picture day in the 9th grade

i am your solitude
i am your noise
i am your virginity
being taken in the backseat of your
brother's best friend's parent's
camaro when you were 15
and more than willing

i'm dawning
i'm dashing
i'm dancing
i'm dwelling
i'm dying
i'm digging
i'm dishing
i'm diving
i'm dozing
i'm dragging
i'm dabbling
i'm drawing
i'm dropping
i'm dosing
i'm dredging
i'm dreaming
i'm drifting
i'm drinking
i'm driving
i'm delaying
i'm drowning
i'm dumping
i'm drilling

i'm dandy
i'm doleful
i'm delicious
i'm dapper
i'm daring
i'm dangling
i'm dangerous
i'm damaged
i'm ******
i'm daily



i'm david

i will rock you out tonight
i will shoot your sputnik to the moon
i will be an itch in the crotch of your space suit
i will be inside you
i will crush a star and sprinkle it in your hair
i will open your eyes and
i will open your mouth
i will start you up
i will let you loose
i will hold pure life in my hands
i will sleep on another couch tonight
i will dream of famine and golden wheat fields
i will dream of contradiction
i will recite the lords prayer
i will pull us under and
i will ***** a device that will bring us afloat

i am just an 8 year old boy
dressed up in church clothes
grass stains on knees, of course
food stains on tie and shoulders, of course
in 1998

you are my 9 year old sister
and i am sitting in a live oak tree
with a slingshot
and a ****-eating grin
against a cheekful of
big chew bubblegum
and you're gossiping
with your friends
you are wearing a
likely sundress
and a necklace that
i will eventually pawn
for 50 dollars

i snuck out
of grown-up church
15 minutes early

i hid the slingshot
here last night

i spent yesterday before
anyone was awake before
the sun had unleashed
her magic on the sky
sharpening my vision
perfecting my aim
feeling the shot
i did 45 jumping jacks
like in phys ed class

and i knew why
i had done these things

it's because i'm jealous
it's because you're perfect
it's because you love me
even when i don't deserve it
it's because you're beautiful
and everyone knows it
it's because i love you too
even though i rarely show it