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I knew a girl who is a lake superior mermaid
Fresh water pearls, never a diamond ring
A north shore vagabond -
lake shore queen with no need for a king
Swims with the users of the bottom as a bed
I knew a girl who is a lake superior mermaid
The lake that never gives up its dead.
Safe in my watery church,
I quietly watch warm water-drops
gather on every bit of my thin, scarred flesh.

My eyes become moons, the demi-globes
of water on my skin become moons,
my heartbeats become moons, the moon
becomes an even nearer moon  
and I pale in all that sacred bright.
two brothers come to blows over which sister likes fast food more.  a man we want to love is shadowboxing a snowdrift from the parable of touch.  blood is a food group.  I pray to my hair.  call my footwork by name.  take my time

with amnesia.  

baby facts include being born again in the museum you were carried to.
Call of the gulls
Cool breeze running its hands
Through every strand of my hair
Waves crashing on the shore
Rolling over toes buried in the sand
Salty scents embedding into every pore
I forgot why I came here
Maybe it was to forget
Or perhaps remember
Ancient days where happiness was as easy
As the ocean reaching shore
I can still hear it over water beating on the rocks
A drum call that awakens sailors
Laughter from her innocent eyes
Glaring out to sea
A dream hidden in the currents
She always wanted to be a mermaid
Now I'm ankle deep in sand that still holds
Every memory we ever made
But I still can't seem to find me
Yet that could be why I'm here
Standing on the edge of our memories
I can still hear all the sobs
Tears falling harder than the ocean tide
I miss it, I miss it all
I wish the hands of time could be reversed
Then stopped at those moments
Where life was as perfect
As the violence beneath the beauty of the sea
I'm 6' 2" and six feet under,
I love like ice and sob like thunder.
All of these canyons in my mind
Will echo with your name for all time
Love a poet? No, love a storm
See your name carved in the landscapes I've torn.
These hands are for making breaks and bruises
With a love like mine everybody loses
Blueness is amplified. Today, the sky reverberates and a tinge of it buzzes totality. The street is blue. Houses, blue. Fences are blue. Dogs are blue. People walking those dogs, blue. It is as if this place is encapsulated in a flickering television screen. Horizontal waves droning a hiss of blue lines utterly everywhere. Nothing can be tuned in correctly. Yet, it feels as if every other color was and has been mistaken. This blueness, so familiar now, can't be dialed out. My frequency, forever blue.
So emphatic is this blue.
my fears arise
you rip apart
with soulful eyes
and open heart
voice so gentle
touch so deep
souls atremble
joyful sleep
we grew apart and back together, 
days and then weeks and then years 
our friendship
as tumultuous
yet predictable
as the waves are to the shoreline

friends
and fights
and boys
passed us by
as we gripped hands tightly
..mostly to your dismay

you were never the type
to need a sidekick
I was always the type
to be one 

our relationship a fragile flame
always on the verge
of flickering out for good

but we kept it alive
just barely
through these past few years

apologies and soliloquies
mostly on my part
entitled forgiveness
on yours

giving you the power
to push me down
just a Little bit further
every time
 Jan 2016 Josephine VanHise
k y
meaningless words sang by a pretty voice
won't do much once you stop hearing
'cause you've realized you're not feeling.

and that shot of whisky feels better than being alone
'cause you'll take a burning sensation over the common cold
that rests in her heart, and rings in your head.

and the knife you keep close to your pillow to ****
the bad dreams away, but all you see is her face
and your blade it doesn't cut as hard as her words when they,

slice through your throat and... you still feel her fingers gripping
and they don't run down your broken little spine like they used to
no.

now they just linger in the depths of your soul,
her lips breaking your bones over, and over
just like before, once and for all.
My worst nightmare
is at a carnival.
In the room filled with mirrors,
that cannot lie to me,
that display the horrors
that are myself
over and over
and over again.
Relentless,
persuasive,
accurate.
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