you taught me
that the saying
our grandparents
used
if it isn't broken
don't fix it
is obsolete
you taught me
your own version
*if it's broken
buy a new one

You wonder how she'd love you.

In the ways I never could,
In ways too clumsy and honest, just like you,
Parts of myself I let die early on
In favor of thicker skin

That silhouette in your eye betrays you
But I've learned not to ask
What you're thinking about
Those glances just beyond me
Because were you to pry
Into all these boarded tunnels,
You'd find her buried in me a thousand times
Murdered by my suffering

I wonder if you know, you've never been forgiven
But
Love is a magic trick
Trivial to those who understand how it works
But many of us
Are enraptured by the performance

I wonder how she'd love you
If you'd make her feel less lonely
Because she'd pry the nails off
Let you into the attic of her past lives
Your fingers could pull handfuls of her pain
Out of future gardens

Places in my soul
I'd never let you touch
Where I buried my bodies
Where I planted beautiful things
And cultivated this
Still
       rising
Not quite
a phoenix
Or a shooting star
The thing that admits it is ugly
Because ugly is appreciated for what it is
In a way that beauty never could be

You're his now
Just like how they say "Exactly, it was your seat"

I thought that was my spot, I guess I was just keeping it warm for him

I tried to recreate the memory you once confessed you loved
I just didn't expect you to confess you were in love
You have lost the weight I have gained
You have made new memories that layer over the only ones I own
How can I stand next to you yet feel so far from home

You could illuminate as bright as the North Star
but you're settling for a shine as insignificant as
a street light in a crowded city.

She loved when they
made love
and her heart
would peak

She loved the kisses he
planted upon her
cheeks

She loved the lazy
afternoons spent
in the Sunday
sheets

She loved the hands
that could make
her high
without any measure

She made no mention
of
her guilty pleasures

With each day she
would have never
guessed that
he would make her
pay

The bruises he left
were contradictions
to the kisses he
had once planted

The lazy afternoons
were filled with screaming
and *** without
love

But she stayed

She stayed

Why did she stay?

-DDF

The town does not exist
except where one black-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.
The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die.

It moves. They are all alive.
Even the moon bulges in its orange irons
to push children, like a god, from its eye.
The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die:

into that rushing beast of the night,
****** up by that great dragon, to split
from my life with no flag,
no belly,
no cry.

They said you were slow and languorous
That live or die 'twas all the same for you
Untutored, they were the swine before the pearls
And were ignorant of the coals that fanned your passion

I was one of the daring few that knocked at your door
The lithe girl in you  was always there for the seeing
You had a shape made in heaven and a smile to match
And your blithe ways said nothing mattered that much

We learned much about the body and the force of allure
We filled our gaps with information as you filled your cups
We became clumsier and more oafish as your grace peaked
But we always knew how to worship your form and beauty

The years went by and we all grew up and spread afield
Try as I did to search high and low, of you I found no trace
Yet with ease I found your pretty face in the clouds of time
And the rain wept your name and kept it showering

Now the relentless years have gone swiftly past somehow
And pretty little girls and bashful boys have grown old
Is this you with the fading sight and the tremulous voice?
'Tis no matter, I know how to bring back that lovely lass

So, no matter what, you'll always be that voluptuous beauty
I don't see your spindly legs nor mind your frequent lapses
They don't know what they missed, these modern types:
Love with the taste of spring water that bubbled out of you

Into the cupped palms of my doting heart that sang a duet
With the crescendo notes of your  ***** and the quiver
Of the enchanted world sitting upon your dancing behind
These enduring images never fade or melt away

Thus, dearest God's masterpiece, you'll always be my girl
And I the boy electrified by your articulate eloquence
Ignore them when they call you a hag and a witch
They know not the feel of the bliss that never goes away