My room
Looks much like my life:
A total mess.

I want to be the one who rocks you to sleep
And feel your warmth as you curl up next to me
I want your face to be the last thing that I see
I want to be your everything

I want to be the one to hold you tight
And keep you safe and warm all through the night
Hiding from the world until it's light
I want to be your everything

I want your safe place to be in my arms
The place where you go to hide from all harm
I want to be the one to hold your hand
The one who's lucky to call himself your man

And when you wake, I want my smile to be
The very first thing that you see
You're the best thing that's ever happened to me
So I want to be your everything

Yes, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me
So darling, won't you be my everything?

I see now--you were
more than just a stop on the
journey; you were home.

No bridge spans this divide
Unlike so many others
We were able to work together to cross
You stand on the other side
And not even our love
Can reach across the gap
I stand at the edge
Next to a dream I hold dear
Cherished and nurtured over the years
Grown strong and tall
Stretching to the sky
It might just be tall enough
To reach the other side
To reach to you
But I can't be sure
So I stand next to the mighty trunk
Axe in hand
And I know
I must decide

Closer and closer we've been creeping
The view from the edge is supposed to be amazing
So I've been told
Even more thrilling, the joy of freefall
If you have the nerve to throw yourself into the unknown
Long have I avoided the edge
Bordered by a deceptively steep *****
That has caught many unawares
And sent them, off balance and stumbling
Over the lip and into the vast expanse
And I have sat, unwilling to test my footing
On the treacherous ground
But now
You
You, who have been to the edge
You, who have experienced the thrill of the flight
Take my hand
And sit
And suddenly
I find I can remain still no longer
I want to know what life is like
Down the hill
Walking the divide between land and sky
And so, after years of sitting
I rise, your hand in mine
And together we brave the hill
It's not so bad, I find
My feet are sure with each step
And you
You, who have taken this journey before
You don't take the lead
Don't pull me along
You follow, matching me stride for stride
And each step makes me want to take one more
Until we find ourselves walking--
Not walking, dancing--
On the brink of the precipice
And I realize our steps are sure
There is no danger of an accidental fall
How long will we resist
The urge to make the jump?

The tempest did not last long
Though while it rampaged it was terrible to behold
Stinging sheets of rain falling nearly sideways
On the fierce breath of the raging wind
A gale force ripping up everything in its path
Sharp stabs of lightning, the only illumination
Across a dark and battered land
And then
The storm blew out
The world dropped away
All that remained
Stillness
Silence
Quiet
Spinning through empty space
Trying to reorient
Moments of feeling grounded again
Like feet finding passing asteroids
Stability for a time
Too soon, the rock floating away in its orbit
Leaving only space
And darkness
Straining to find the next moment of solid footing
Eyes that acclimate to the dark
Learning to navigate the emptiness
Between those moments of steadiness
Then, without warning, a blinding flash
Remnant of the maelstrom
A bolt of lightning searing through space
The afterimage, glimpses of times gone by
Visions of moments that never came to be
Shadows of a future once dreamed of
Eventually fading away to blackness once more
No way to see what lies ahead
Or what direction “ahead” even is
Just drifting
But
Still
Trying
To move forward
Through empty space

I’ve been wandering through these hallways too long
Staring at the works of the people they called masters
Paintings labeled as perfection
Every fold of clothing unruffled
Every strand of hair in place
Even in scenes of struggle and death
Moments born not of real life
But of fantasy, imagination, hours of unnatural stillness
Days and weeks spent in meticulous crafting
No freedom, no movement, no life
But you
You
Are art in motion
Bold strokes of a quick charcoal sketch
Flashing lights and hips in motion in a salsa club
The beautiful shapes made by one body on another
And you pull me out of the museum
Away from the frozen images
The false representation of life
Into the wild rush of life itself
And a new kind of art
We are footprints left in wet cement
We are graffiti murals on the side of a building
We are canvas caught in a paint fight
Swirls and splashes and smears of color
Captured amidst laughter and lighthearted joy
Perfect in a completely different way
Perfect
And messy
And real

either
i bend
or
we break

Deadliest monster
Truly believes that it is
A creature of light

I had no idea how easily the bridge would go
It seemed like we had built something so solid
Already constructed on the ruins of failed attempts
But this one, this was going to be the one
A moment of fear, a few thoughtless words
Thinking as mine what should have been ours
Those words flying with unerring aim
To the bases of the pillars on which this bridge was built
Sitting, deadly as dynamite, armed and waiting
Too late in realizing the danger of those words
Too late to reel them back in
Now understanding that the damage was done
The disaster a matter of when, not if,
The only question the size of the explosion
Merely awaiting truth, the detonator
There was no massive flash, no fireball
No scorching wave of heat
Just silence
And then
A shifting
A crumbling
Watching in horror as the pillars groan
Then buckle
The agonizing descent of the bridge’s collapse
The only thing to do:
Get down into the dirt
Amidst the rubble
And start rebuilding, brick by brick
Praying that one day you will trust it
To hold you again

I watched the way you treated her
I wanted to ask “how could you be so blind?”
I swore that I would learn the lessons of her pain
I promised that I would never make your mistakes
I lied
Turns out the apple
Doesn’t fall far from the tree
After all

And just like that
The wall between us fell
Turns out
We're going the same direction
After all

Oh, it's graceful, all right
This dance of yours
Beautiful.
Mesmerizing.
As you leap and twirl and glide
You generate a force stronger than gravity
And they come, one by one, drawn by your light
These little planets, caught by the weight of your brilliance
They fall into orbit
Wanting only to bask in the warmth
You cast forth so effortlessly in your dance
They circle, but at the center is you.
Always you.
Only you.
And as they come, one by one
So also they fall
One
By
One
Trapped in orbits that begin to decay
Nearer and nearer they close
Until they are too close
You draw them into your wild dance
And they burn.
All too soon there is nothing left
These little planets, once so full of life
Now nothing more than scorched and desolate ***** of rock
They slingshot back into orbit
Where they stay
Barren
Circling
A solar system of broken dreams
And in the center
A sun
Wishing it knew
How to simply be
A planet

This castle was made of nothing more than clouds, I know
But it seemed to almost build itself
Springing more fully into being
With each interaction
Every look, a soaring tower swirling into being
Every smile, a noble wall stretching through space
Every touch, a waving banner of proclamation
And inside the lofty keep
Blazing brightly on the hearth
Fueled by the promise of things unsaid
The flaming tongues of possibility
Burning, growing, feeding on the hope
That this majestic vaporous edifice
Might be the blueprint
For something solid
Something real
How strange that it could all fall apart
Rent into nothing but wispy fragments
By a single breath
Of air