To the girl who sits behind me
On the city bus everyday:
I know they probably say
With your cat-eye and your beehive
That you look like you belong
Way back in the day
But I think you look beautiful,
Even more so yesterday,
When you walked onto the bus
with your hair down wearing tear-stains.
I think you looked best today,
With a messy bun and no makeup
Listening to a song
And laughing
While I tried not to smile

To the guy who wrote the poem for me yesterday:
I know you must work hard,
You come here at six in the morning everyday,
And I don’t know why
But when I look your way I feel safe.
I know you probably hear
That you should take a break
But I know what it’s like
To work hard
Because there’s not another way.
And I know they probably say
With your tattoos and your gages
You don’t look your age
And you shouldn’t have gotten the job,
But I think you look best
At five in the morning
When you’ve just woken up
And you’re sipping coffee
While we wait for the bus
And your hair’s all messy
And your tattoos catch my eye
And I try to read them,
But I don’t want to pry

To the girl who replied to my poem yesterday:
You can read my tattoos
Any time you like
And I think you look best
At six in the morning
When your eyes shine bright
And you sip your coffee
And don’t hide your delight
I like the way
You bite your lip
When you read a book
Or you’re thinking
Or bored,
It drives me crazy
How come we never talk?
Maybe one day,
Instead of poems at bus stops
We could go for a walk.
Well, I have to get off.
Your stop’s in a minute,
Try not to forget it.

To the guy who writes me poems at bus stops:
I feel like I know you better everyday,
But it’s really weird,
Because I don’t know your name
And you don’t know mine,
Which I think is fine,
Because if this turned
Into anything other
Than poems
At bus stops,
I’d probably scare you away
Like everybody else.
Maybe we should stop,
Before we both get hurt.
Signed tearfully,
The girl in the seat behind you

To the girl who told me to go away:
You wouldn’t scare me away,
Not yesterday,
Not today,
Not ever.
Please don’t make me leave
Like everybody else.
Signed hopefully,
The guy who writes poems at bus stops

To the guy who writes poems at bus stops:
My name’s Haley
And sometimes I close my eyes
And wonder what they call you.
I take pictures everyday
And that’s why I’m here at five
Or maybe six
Every morning
To capture the perfect sunrise.
Here’s the picture I got
Yesterday, just in case
You wanted to see.

To Haley,
Who gets up early
To capture sunrises:
My name’s Ryan and
I spend all day crunching numbers,
Praying they don’t crunch back.
The picture was beautiful
And I though that maybe
One day
We could meet for coffee
And turn this into something
More than poems
At bus stops.

To Ryan, the number-cruncher
Who stole my heart:
I’d love to go for coffee
And we can laugh while we talk,
Maybe I can even show you
My favorite place
In Central Park
And we can go for a walk.

Dearest Haley,
Who captures sunrises
And stole my heart:
I can’t believe it’s been
A year since we began
With poems at bus stops
And coffee while we
Watched rain drops and talked about us.
I know this may be too soon,
I pray you don’t think me a fool,
To believe a number-cruncher
And sunrise-capturer
Could have a happily ever after.
But what do you say
We give it a shot
And spend the rest of our lives
Telling our kids
About how a number-cruncher
And a sunrise-capturer
Had a fairytale wedding
And are living their
Happily ever after.

When your poem doesn’t work
Or you cliché lines make you look like a dork
Neither your sweet words got her head turn
It seems you were so hot and her tongue got burned

When she didn’t react with what you said
Though for her heart to throb, it was meant
When it wasn’t brought on topic yet
Maybe it was too worthless she forget

When she’s not in the mood to reply back
When it seems you’re talking to someone whose mouth is shut
When simple smileys from her are all you got
When you messaged her a whole lot

Fear not and keep calm
Maybe most of it is all in your mind
Stay cool and try to understand
Be reminded to be as patient as you can

“She’s probably busy
But she even sought time to text a smiley”
Chant that to yourself and be as positive as you can be
Because getting emotional isn’t the key

Take time to ask her what’s wrong
You’ve probably done something without knowing so
If that’s the case, whisper a “Sorry” or sing a song
Make her feel that you’ll never let her go

It’s better to trust then regret
Than doubt then regret
“I love you”, in those words of her, you should always place your bet
Believe in her instead of your weak speculations, that, you shouldn’t forget

99 cent wars, rooftops, Gibraltar Screaming "god bless the fabulous" Christs;

In the eyes of years
Man is king only over that which breathes,
So let's throw hugs in the air,
sit on flowers and vanish to Cook stones on the hips of Cleopatra
with all of December's left footed children

For through the cried ***** tears of furry German banana caskets,
Eternity awaits
In the failures of our greatest triumphs,

So let's dance

After all, Psychological Wednesday societies
Are only good for curing Xbox manifestos and Tuesday sanities

And if we died one day,
it sure won't be yesterday.

i've long since
recycled
that letter
you sent me
but it came back today
in a notebook
i bought
at walmart
your words live on,
you *******

today
instead of
feeling better
feeling prettier
feeling less like
a *******
when i drew
black lines
across my eyes
i felt
disconnected.
the lengthening curves
did not flatter me
they made me
hollow
hungry
old.
electrical tape
holding together
burned out fuses
they carved me out
left me
for dead
all i wanted
was some help
all i got
was a reminder
of my impending
futility
my impending dissatisfaction
i always top off
too quickly
i'll need something else
to make me feel better
soon.

Lust (n.)
a. the feeling of being intoxicated with someone, thoughts drenched in their essence
b. finding complete happiness in lying entwined all night and day, forgetting every other world
c. dreaming and being unable to see anything but their eyes
d. losing track of the hours; never wanting to be apart.

Agony (n.)
Being apart from the person of your lust.

He poured the coffee
Into the cup
He put the milk
Into the cup of coffee
He put the sugar
Into the coffee with milk
With a small spoon
He churned
He drank the coffee
And he put down the cup
Without any word to me
He emptied the coffee with milk
And he put down the cup
Without any word to me
He lighted
One cigarette
He made circles
With the smoke
He shook off the ash
Into the ashtray
Without any word to me
Without any look at me
He got up
He put on
A hat on his head
He put on
A raincoat
Because it was raining
And he left
Into the rain
Without any word to me
Without any look at me
And I buried
My face in my hands
And I cried