You were maybe a foot away from me, sitting to the side, accomplishing your task with silent efficiency. A chord rung out, emanating from your body; it drew me near. I stopped to watch, stopped to see, a man of beauty, a man of strength. No cries of anguish or pain, no cries of fear of structure or fear of imminent danger. Hope lifted in my heart; you had a different vibe than all the other guys. You could make me happy. You could keep me safe. You would laugh at my jokes and guard my wounded self-esteem.

And then four feet away, not that much later. We met for the first time, for real. A sudden recognition, an exchanging of names, a few witty (or ditzy?) comments. Four feet again, near the forbidden. Our eyes didn't meet, for you were distracted, lost in your own world of music blasting from your headphones. I traced the line defining your back with a marker that writes on air.

Seasons slipped by. You stood just six feet away in your savvy black bowtie. Fake, yes, but still considered formal. A cheap imitation at the very least, but to one of us, it's all the same. Closer yet, a foot again, only a seat away. I drew my fingers across the top of your surprisingly smooth hands, tracing your veins, the veins that carried your blood, faintly pulsing, speaking softly of gentle carresses and sweet nothings.

Eight feet away, across the classroom, I caught your eye. Mountains moved and dams ruptured as cool, silky waters quenched insatiable fires. There were things I noticed for the first time: the kindness that pampered children underlaying each tone, the strength that upheld the weak resonating from your arms, and the love that would not hesistate to sacrifice sparkling in your eyes. Suddenly, desire gripped me like a reawakened flame, heat up to par with the heat that causes your veins to bulge. I realized that those veins now contained my life's blood. My lifeblood.

I watched you run alongside me, ten feet away, racket up at guard. I've never told you that when you serve, you look exactly like the man on the back of the team shirt; indescribable yet immortalized for an eternity. Eternity, a neverending length of time, the amount of time I want to spend with you and you alone.

Twenty feet away, even further but still closer than ever. Twenty feet, the span of a hallway perhaps, from one set of locked doors to another heavy set. Still close, still close, for no matter the distance, we can bridge this gap. With what? With love. My love for you, and yours for me.


The lines before you sing softly, over and over, three resounding syllables: I love you.

Everything was new to her
Everything was a game
She was a treasure
And yet an undeserved bane

She danced rainbows
On the shore
Laughed fire
Over the wind

Chestnut hair
Tumbled down an ivory back
Round blue-ish mirrors
Rested under slender brows
She sat down by the rocks
Watched the clouds drift around
With a chestnut prison beside her
Splashed by a bit of the ocean spray

Flawless -
In every way but one -
Insatiable curiosity beckoned her
Told her to open the lid
And so

She did.

Horrors spilled out:
One-eyed monsters
By the names of Envy and Greed,
Along with fat abominations -
Gluttony and Lust - paying no heed
To Pandora's shouts
Or attempts to flee

With tremendous effort
The lid fell shut
Trapping disheartened Hope
Within wooden walls
And she, the curse from the Thunderer,
Collapsed -
Her rainbows dissolved
And fire doused

Everything was dead to her
Nothing was a game
She was a treasure
And yet an undeserved bane

The river spoke to me.
I fell under the spell
Cast by his flowing voice.
A great rain ravaged the land,
Tearing at the innocent trees,
The skies mourned,
Crying even when
I finally arrived
At a sunbathed glade,
The eye of the storm,
Where everything
Stood still.

A god slept next to me.
The shadows of his face
Shifted with a graceful fluidity.
His skin was like silk,
Rippling in the breeze,
Perfect and serene.
If he opened his eyes,
I imagined they'd be
Priceless pearls
From the depths of the sea.

I watched him sleep.
Tiny puffs of air,
A manifestation of his
Once-divine breath,
Escaped his weary lips.
His chest rose and fell,
The vein in his neck throbbed angrily,
The blood inside
Surging against a dam.

I watched you sleep.
A wisp of air ruffled your
Indecisive hair,
The candle in the sky
Moved again,
Outlined the features of your
Now-mortal face,
Once lovely.

You roll over.
I watch your back, and
Before long,
I breathe with you.
In and out,
In and out,
In and out...

Until,
at last,
we converge.

A relationship is born when two strangers sit together at a table for the first time.  What’s he thinking?  Awkward small talk fills the air until gravity pulls them closer, and like a ball of hydrogen in space, everything begins to fuse.

H becomes He.  A single AIM convo becomes a series of texts exchanged despite freezing fingers.  A string of unrelated conversations becomes 81 Post-its on a clean white wall.  Somehow, across the span of a month, the heat increases, and as the couple warms up, their feelings expand, swelling to fill the space of a boisterous red giant.

When the initial passion dissipates, fusion begins again.  They swap secrets over rainbow-filled flash games, and helium reacts to form carbon.  Everything besides the core doesn’t matter - it’s all blown away, leaving a miniscule white dwarf, what two people feel for one another, aglow with the words that no longer need to be spoken.

As time passes, the light will fade, but its existence - the memories - remains forever.

A cloak of crimson petals
Unfurled for all to see
A strong and steady stem
Contented just to be

But when the wind ruffles
Her boisterous feathers
Roaring mighty fierce
And escaping rusty tethers

The petals are agitated
From their home they stray
The stem with thorns
Begins to wither away

The bees and the birds
Have deserted the one
With its beauty flown off
And its radiance undone

Little girl,
Will you do the same?
Take off and leave,
Quitting the game?

There were colors in my head,
A jumble, a medley,
Quickly whipping by,
Colliding into one another
Not knowing the time

To the left -  no, the right! -
Red and blue or black as night
Simple chords that have no name
To here and there yet it's all the same

Conductor!
Tell me where we're going
For only brazen confusion
Rings now to my ears
Call a lengthy rest
Four bars of four
Five or six, maybe more

To the left -  no, the right! -
Red and blue or black as night
Simple chords that have no name
To here and there yet it's all the same

Faint rumbling pulses
Underneath the dirt,
Resounds with the roar
Of sea-salty waves,
Tosses its mane -
Halves welded to whole.

To the left -  no, the right! -
Red and blue or black as night
Simple chords that have no name
To here and there yet it's all the same

Tread softly
Over the tracks of gentle spring
Come and go quickly
Like the breeze before the storm.

Make not a mark upon this world;
Sail through boundless seas
As larks and thrushes do.
Disappear from the flowering trees
With the incidental meet,
An ivory invitation's worth,
Of muffled May showers.

And enter as the wind
Carressing budding leaves - soft -
Cradling anxious clouds,
Cartwheeling up above
Against the paths
Of geese returning home,
Crying with muted colors.
And then the howling hushes -
Tuned at last -
With soft, almost silent, syncopations.

Tread softly, my love,
Over the tracks of gentle spring.