The water's edge is near to me
With rolled-up sleeves
This tranquil breeze
I'm bringing bookshelves in with me
It's Aberdeen
It's never-seen

Our passions are fueled
By actions in practice
Our discoveries can be lost
In arguments of semantics
What is discovery
What is passion
Why do I feel
This sense of abstraction

Abstraction
And chance
What a beautiful combination
A happenstance circumstance
That brought you to culmination

This happy mind
Set high up in the sky
An elevation conquered through such smiles
These well-embarked nights
Too sweet like sugared lime
We're gallivanting urban streets for miles

This life is gold
Wrapped memories in foil
To save, refrigerate, and sit and wonder
Street light, lightning poles
Electrified shoe soles
Northbound on a bridge, we stand and ponder

This city street
The trees have lost their leaves
But warm food paired with milkshakes stifles chills
Each touch ignites the breeze
Bad jokes, good laughs with ease
Casting spells unknown through each unopened thrill

Like a lion's roar
Like a bird that soars
Like an antique store

You are so much more

Like cityscape skylines
Like a lake with ice so fine
Like a bench to outrun time

You somehow plague my mind

But I don't care for the cure

On the desk, there lies a fountain pen
It doesn't take cartridges
Rather, you dip it in ink and press it to paper
It makes a sound, not unlike fingernails on a chalkboard
But not like it either - it's satisfying instead of goosebump-inducing
Slowly scratching the page until it's gone
The ink has bled onto page 3
I've pressed too hard
But this paper is thick
Previous poets pondered profusely
Pretending this pen was a pipe
Holding it between their teeth until an idea came ripe
This pen holds a history of poetry
Of spilling thoughts that otherwise stayed internalized
And of sometimes spilling ink
It gets everywhere
I love it

When a poet writes
His heart on paper
Or a songwriter sings
Her silent whims
They share the medium
Of space and senses
On which their thoughts
Become reality

Dimly dreaming of bright lights
Crave glimmers of ascension
Freeze, question
Interrogate and turn this way
To boat around this fence
As for the distance, straight line
Asphalt is bent
Gated at night and locked all day
The password worked yesterday
Everyone loses senses slowly
But this is just too far

I've seen a better part
Of overwhelming emotion
It's strange
An ebb and flow
Of apathy and actually
Living
Feeling an emotion
Feeling a feeling
Feel
When your body
Is alive
And your mind is trying
To let it slide
Behind
I am fine
I am
Life is beautiful

Blue lakes gave the glass a crystal world of looking
The ocean seems blue
It can be rough water
Dream water
Red water
Zero water too
Aimless
It's time to shine
In the dead of night
Flow into a delta and find its goal
Its rivers and tributaries meander, broken down, broken up, algae
It carries soil, silt, sand, streams, silent
Silent
It is created, evolved, reincarnated, now
Rolling with the tides and the moon
It's not leaving
It will not speak
It doesn’t go far
But the distance is too long to walk
It runs in Winter
Slows in Spring
Dangerous in Summer
I hear it sing
Drum up a current
It's glass
It can flow
It can pass
Under bridges where cars and trains are electric
It waters the land
Straining until pure
Removing all the lures
It is a flurry
It is fast
Fast
I see it, hear it, I feel it too
It's been green, brown, pink, orange
Red
It's been drained
Remained
Stained
Up close it's clear
But at a distance
It's blue
I see the air, the moon, the hands, the truth
Breathing in
The ocean's blue

Wake up, breathing, happy to see
The walls surround you, deafening
You're in the ocean, water deep
The ground is there beneath your feet

It's at the door, ding-**** bell
You're whispering to rid your Hell
Of mindless thoughts and there you fell
Into the pit - a burning smell

When the sun is up, the heat is nigh
Your words are breaths to make it by
An aquarium of octopi
You breathe again and feel alright

The window has a crack but it's okay
You patch it up with masking tape
And avoid it like that song you hate
To masquerade this life you've made

Sunglasses to hide the eyes behind
In hopes that one day vines would bind
The swimming laps, the daily grind
To avoid the time it'd take to find

The answer to your Hell is near
Just put that smile ear-to-ear
And remember the reason that you're here
Alive and breathing - let it come clear

If our Universe were laid out flat
With many others
How would we interact
In a beautiful multiverse
Maybe the gravities would merge
Intertwined in a way
Maybe our thoughts of tomorrow
Would be there today
Would we be a layer
In a celestial cake
Or a player
In a space-ruled game

A catamaran whooshes past
Epilogued by the propeller with which it steers
Marking each and every ripple
Without hesitation, without fear
I'll take the next wave

Lightly stained
Like a towel
That took so many trips
Ocean water seeps through
Elegantly
Permeating the fibers
Pooling in the center
As a large celestial body
Pulls
Bending space and time
To wash you again

Where coal gets pressed
And zippers - undressed
A diamond of red night's gleaming
How souls get stressed
To act chipper at best
But inside - a cauldron that's steaming
A raven has landed and soon will be near
Through mentality's bland, white sun
When the moon opens wide
And swallows the shadows
That's when they'll have the most fun

river poets meandering
through stacks of golden hay
water rolling over jagged rocks
as night turns to day
pen to paper, written later
reeks of means to hesitate
ocean writers flicking lighters
humming through to meditate
when your chest is getting tighter
smoke through cigarette haze

The wonders of the world
Fringing train track paths

Cities of concrete gold
Buses with lingering laughs

Conductors wave to asphalt old
Birds flutter in stone-cold baths

Colors become slightly more bold
As windows sweep the street light past

Drink a clock and combine with time
Be once again a work of art
Doesn't it feel so sublime
The world around you falls apart
But you're a timeless interjection
A gear within a counterpart
A ripple in a lake's reflection
A defibrillator to my heart
Your mind is transcendent yet you're here
A physical reminder of the rest
The world is not as it appears
That's why I'll give you all my best

Searching on the fire escape
Desert sands
Rooibos flake
Standing on the dune of fate
Raga bands
Oasis lake
Rolling red the wind to shape
Palm leaf fans
Wise-eyed snake
Quenching cactus, satiate
Unknown lands
Hot breaths to take

A sitar sings
Her notes carried on the wind
Like cactus seeds
I brew the roots
And drink the juice
Of desert dreams

Each cup is filled
And cold toes are warmed
By little spills
My hands are scorched
Dunes are grabbing my ankles
And pulling me forward

To the cross-legged drums
They sound like water droplets
Each beat flows
In a pool of stone
Caressing the ears of cicadas
as their legs pierce the heat
of the hailed sun

Lying there
Nose at the bottom
Of the door
Sleeping
I wonder what he smells
The grass
Or the bush that was just trimmed
Or the neighbor's Jack Russell
After all, they are good friends
Dog park stories and
Funny expressions
Times when his tennis ball
Was the only thing in the world
His goal to catch it
Bring it back
He would do that for a week straight
If he could
Maybe he's sad that I had to trim his fur
Because now his tail
Just isn't as fluffy
Being a golden retriever
Is tough

Minnesota winter
This lake, that lake
The lake around the corner
Frozen, wholly
Catching fish through
Holes in the ice
Frostbite
Layers of snow packed deeper
And deeper
And deeper
Like an unsightly
Ice cream cake
Snowmobiles leaving traces
Of minus 40 races
Breath freezing to faces
And icicle trim laces
Something is serene
Though the air
Kind of smells like
Freezer burn
And hypothermia

You feel expired
Like the milk in the fridge
It's got a lump or two
And the lettuce is fused
To the drawer
The garbage disposal makes a sound
Like it's grinding steel wire
It might be from that art project you did
When you tried to make a figurine
And got too tired
So you set it in the sink
To forget about it
But that's okay
Ramen noodles take a while to go bad
But those Cup 'O' Noodles
Get a bit crusty
After a few months
The dripping from the faucet
Doesn't really matter
Because the only reason for the bathroom
Is to empty your bladder
And sit
With your head in your hands
Before you head back to the bedroom
And wonder
What am I even doing?
Why does thinking hurt?
It's a lot of work
When your favorite color
Is grey

Through the wandering spectrum
Of cerulean dragonfly eyes
You fly without hesitation
Observing the vast and marvelous world
As if it were your own
As if it were your cut-out template,
With an admirable sense of wonder
And the fervent desire
Not only to know
But to contemplate
The luminescence of a fluttering firefly
How the brittle mechanisms of life
Apply
Through crystal-clear dragonfly wings
You carry your mind

Dressing room, dressing room
Tell me I'm pretty
Allow me to pirouette
In this small space
To show you each plait
On the skirt I just lifted
Over my trousers
Dressing room, dressing room
Your lights are so bright
It brings out every makeup line
But if I squint
They don't seem so defined
Dressing room, dressing room
How close can I get
To your mirrors
Before they stop
Reflecting
And start
Complimenting

The Great Red Spot
Gracing Jupiter's surface
Beautiful and intriguing from the outside
And a whirlwind within

Gravitational lensing
Brings forth so beautifully the thoughts,
the haphazard chaos
That is the Universe's entropy

While colors are distorted
Light is contorted
It somehow provides a deeper look
Into the unknown

****, space is cool