Kasey Wheeler: Favorites

Dec 2016 Kasey Wheeler

T

Dec 2016 Kasey Wheeler

Alex

T

Love of my life.
You give me life.

I would just send this in a message to you, but you're such a light sleeper, and I don't want your phone to go off and disturb you.

I lie here next to you some nights feeling like I might explode with love for you; where I feel something that is beyond love and beyond whatever is beyond love, and I feel it through my being.

I can't even make myself care about how awfully mushy and gross I must sound when I talk about you. I'm too... enveloped.

I lie here
and I want
a million things with you.

I want to make you happy. I want babies with you. I want to always light your cigarettes. I want to stroke your hair and hold your hand for the rest of my life.
I want to roll over right now and breathe more of you in. (How do you always smell like the best thing I have ever smelled?)

I want you to
always
leave marks on me that I'll
always
pretend to be annoyed about.
I want to make love to you over and over and over
and over
and over.
I want to taste your skin, I want to make you feel so good.

I want more for you to rest now, though. You had a hard day. I love watching you sleep anyway; listening to you.
I want to hear your perfect breathing for my next hundred eternities. I want to make you feel good, always, in every way. I wish I could heal and protect your body and mind from every pain in the universe.

I want your name on my lips forever. I want to always, always feel this way.
And I want to be your Always. It's my one wish.
I want you, more than anything I have wanted before,
and I want you all the time, forever.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you,
"I wrote something for you last night."
And... the whole time you're reading this...
I will be hoping to God that you know how these words don't even begin to describe the galaxies of emotions
that you fill me with.

#tdl

Dec 2016 Kasey Wheeler

Claw machine

Dec 2016 Kasey Wheeler

Nicholas Mercier Coulombe

Claw machine

People take turns inserting coins
attempting to grab plushy hearts and plastic capsules
the claws never were good at holding on for long
always went limp, dropping the trinkets, just before the finish line
only time it grabbed hold of something long enough
to flash all the lights and sing
was for children
who pointed a tiny hand
at something shiny they saw inside
parents step up to fail again and again
at winning it for them.
when the kids have a turn.
on the first try, they lasso this heart
resting firmly on the bottom
hidden beneath all the old ipods and heavy rubber toys.
would glow in the lights
when they lit all up and sang for them.
revered for their expertise and skill,
they reach in to claim their reward.
not even knowing what it really was.
but for some reason
grabbing it.
bringing it everywhere.
when the kids get older.
it was kept on their bed.
when they had their own children
handed down to toy chests
when they grew old, their children left the hearts
in hospital rooms...

they didn't think of it much.
seemed natural to lug it around.
everyone was so proud, that the machine chose them.
the prize was so soft, and familiar.

the machine, though.
could tell every day that it was missing.
held tightly onto the coins they left.
kept filling itself with junk and giving it to strangers
hoping one day they'd come back to play again.

a man comes by once in awhile to relieve him of his coin
then fills him full of new prizes to divvy out.
but the claw machine lodges some coins
far in the back, where his short arms can't reach
so he can remember

#loss #children #machine #claw

Dec 2016 Kasey Wheeler

Within I Am

Dec 2016 Kasey Wheeler

Nishu Mathur

Within I Am

Hair be raven, golden, russet,
And eyes be ebony, green or blue,
Lips be red dipped in wine,
Skin almond or a rosy hue.

Hands be frail, creased with lines,
Soles worn with cracked feet,
Spine bent a storm wrecked tree,
But a voice melodic sweet.

Waves wash in ****** waters,
Forests make a leafy throne ,
Petals make a crown of blossoms,
Mountains mould a stone.

In the eyes dance reflections,
A mirror of what I can see,
You say I am not a stranger,
Then pray tell me who I be.

One by one, I drop a layer,
And still I be a whole,
Not this flesh that covers,
Within I am a soul.

#life #i #soul