I want to draw a sugar fish
Atop of your cheekbone
So it can swim along with tears
And land on your birthstone
I wish to sketch an elephant
Amongst your dainty teeth
So you will never dare forget
That tongue that’s underneath
I need to paint a teakettle
Between your knobby knees
For every time it whistles
You will meet a gentle breeze
But instead your hand picked up a pen
Then turned it to my palm
At once I knew you didn’t need
My brushstrokes to feel strong

There’s a monster in my gut
I can feel him breathing evermore
Those subtle, green-eyed  snarls
From which emits a midnight slick
Of intoxicating oil
Every and each lonesome eve
He rings the dinner bell, reverberating hunger
Through the acid of my walls, ascending up my spine
No matter how my door is braced
His entrance my meal spoils
But don’t misunderstand me now
Although he is a monster
He has gentlemanly hands
That raise his glass for one last speech
Toasting dreams gone black and foiled

Her toes awash with dusty mist
Footsteps. Silence
The desert ate her inside out
Swallowed up her chaos
Vastness sometimes halts the moon
The horizon line abundance
The magic carpet of the West
Wove itself of footpath threads
Rolled out and beaten clean
Presence

Folds of skin, and hair, and earth
Mingling amongst us
A mound of lust and bitter pills
Towering above us
Bodies dance more easily
When bathed in dusky smoke
I bid the vastness of the night
Adieu as I awoke

The worm he dances swiftly up the ankle of my bones
He crests the waves of belt buckles and hips as smooth as stones
One wiggle closer to the prize
Of brainpan thoughts and wandering eyes
He brings with him a quaint disease
It breathes a wind that buckles knees
The knees that kept me standing, kept my pupils locked in line
Now this black worm has edged into the highway of my spine
The spiral steps and collar bone, a temporary hurdle
Luckily his slippery frame were made for such a battle
So up he goes to dive into my choppy, brainy sea
And loose the anchor off his ship, infecting happily

Autumn tucked herself
Into the folds of my limbs
We float side by side

Envy grows green leaves
The stem carries all the weight
Blooms get the glory

Mind your p's and q's
And don't forget to whisper
The man might hear you

Again and again
Your wings make wind feel alive
Disappearances

I wish you were my cellmate
In this secret jailhouse heart
Shackled wrists and captive soles
Our bond a metal spark
Of sharp steel keys
In sharp steel locks
That hide us from the air
The air dragged in through two great lungs
The gateway to this lair
We’d spend the days devising plans
For solace and escape
While secretly devising plans
Preserving this round shape
For there’s no jailbreak from ones frail heart
As small as it may be
This red hot blood flows swift and coiled
Sanguine cycle will not cease
Until my red hot pedigree
Flows free and unconfined
By walls of flesh and stark white bone
A mortal contract signed
The day we swim in freedom blood
The day we will return
To mingle true with dirt and roots
And end this prison term

Mermaids share hearts too
Anchors away my ocean love
Let’s swim deep and vast

Music ties my shoes
Wrapped around my lazy toes
It knows no stillness

A breath of sweet and subtle stench
First warns me he is real
The monster dressed in sheep’s soft skin
Charm bells upon his heel
So sly and quick his words disguised
Thoughts dripping with dissent
Actions speak before the wolf
Can shed his meek garment
But just tonight the monster grew
A boldness unforeseen
And man’s true self
Has been revealed
The wolf, his teeth do glean

Dine on open roads and dust
Each meal another stamp
These pockets filled with traveled ink
Beg gypsies to make camp
These stamps they urge for permanence
These stamps they whisper home
But these soles deaf to stand-still dreams
Won’t listen, will just roam
No tar pit streets or shackled needs
Will hold me in their grasp
My ship will sail to float the sea
The nets are tied and cast
These travels promise me more meals of dirt and humble brews
My thirst cannot be quenched indoors
A drought my soul would lose
These travel stamps drip ripe with ink
They live to smudge and haunt
The signature I’ve signed in soot
My birthright home does taunt
Yes, I must off to earth and air
Where deeds for land are scant
These soles the only souls I trust
I hope you understand

Perched on crescent moons afloat
The tired constant tides
Of earthbound seas and crumbling hills
To which awake abides
For dreamy heights
Met deep within
My dreamy brainpan sea
Are best observed from far too high
Than waking lets me be

He builds a wooden box
Then he puts my breath inside
It is safe in there

I wish you were here
Without you I feel too vast
I’ve never met you

Everyday he
Waits upon my anxious step
To knock down my door

I walked out on a limb for you
My fascination with the view
Lead me to my reject my nest
First one foot and then the next
My balance shrill and ill-disposed
Harmonized while wind composed
A tragic song of aching words
That first seemed sweet and then the birds
Realized rootless I had stepped
No wings to right the disconnect
Between the branch and the great tree
The limb it trembled underneath
The quake unseen by your dark head
My faith a testament instead
To cold and unforgiving stone
Far beneath the branch that moaned
Unable to support the weight
Of trusting, willing, twisted faith
My nest was warm and safe and fine
Until your words mingled with mine
And then it seemed an empty mound
Of sticks and twigs so unprofound
That stepping out was only right
My boldness such a blazon sight
And then you sharpened your sweet axe
So swift and fierce was your attack