the universe is ethereal
filled with life
vast and breathtaking
it shines its light

rob this knowledge
i don't mind
for there is enough beauty
solely in your eyes

Reliving the horror of a past I laid to rest*
The words sprang to life like dry bones becoming as flesh
I heard his voice so real in my head
Knowing full well I should shut the book
*I turned the page instead

Back road red dirt
Sipping Zima with the jolly ranchers
Hanging with the guys
The girls just too much drama

Having to be carried in
Only 17
Momma shaking her head
Waste basket and a hair tie for me

Growing up small town
Cruising the drag
Drinking at the tin barn
Watching fights turn into love
Memories were made
The ones that'll never fade

Had my first boyfriend
From the rival town
We were the talk of everyone
Twenty years later
Giving it another go round

Had my first kiss
Parked by the y
Being carried in again
Momma just shaking her head

Cruising the red dirt
Mesa's all around
No guardrails to protect
When my heart was broken and down

These are the memories
Ones that'll never fade
Hitting that red dirt
Even to this day

He said he loved her with every ounce of his unworthy soul
His heart for all it was worth
Wrenched right out of his chest
And laid at the diamonds beneath her soles
He didn't know how to treat her the way she deserved
He put her on a pedestal
A platform he created with his words
He carved her love from the burning wax of his devotion
Watched her draw hearts in the condensation on the window
He longed to reach out and take her dreams
Arrange them in order
Then perhaps write in his own
She lived in the light of his affection
Her skin was tired of his touch
But it's okay, it's okay
It's cute and poetic
She's a flower he waters
His sun blinds her
Her heart is an animal
It knows not what it wants
Better to be trapped in its cage
That to flee his grasp
And long for another cage to hold it down

a crossroads-
my fingers are drooping like dampened socks,
as I am changing like a
kitchen table hardens over spills and
senseless childhood arguments.

i’ve forgotten how to breathe as my lungs strain more heavily,
as drains reject water in hypocrisy and your image haunts the table like an apparition with no social courtesy.

the mirror has been less and less friendly. my hair feels like styrofoam.

i felt my worn-down sneakers attract the wet leaves like magnets in another New England autumn. i wondered why they didn’t repel me like logic, purpose, or your daisy-shaped palms.

we fight and bleed to stick to the bottoms of sneakers but winter will come and lovers will pass,
as any breeze will tell you.

the funeral was
in his bathtub. a single
guest and he wore red