I lost it all
at that table, that night
dreams, hope,
maybe even a bit of myself.

But that
didn’t make me a loser.
You lose
only if you stay.

I stood up,
quiet,
broke,
but free.

I didn’t come
to chase luck
I came to face it.

And when luck
turned its back,
I turned mine too
on that room,
that game,
that lie.

I walked out
to find a better way
to win.

One not built
on cards,
but on steps
I take outside.

A being so yielding,
Yet so easy to break.
Soul’s component so rare
It must be a mistake.

Here on the outside,
The inside seems gangrene.
And there’s no one
I’ve known
That knows
What I mean.

Balconies are begrudging bearers of idyllic sunsets
Should they rest as nothing more they wanted

Would you sit there and wilt into the sullen, saddened laughter
Of another lonesome worrier wondering through their mind

Forgotten are the passer-byers in the wake of changing times
I've forgotten not the cool chirping air deafening my sense

No more are for the cradle's tulle warping around me
With gentle precision hanging amid a hammocked cornucopia

Graceful shining shifts from sudden places
High and crowded seen by eyes hidden in laces

Mingle, why don’t you
With fingertips of lover’s hands
Hanging on your every thought,
Each touching singing circles

Graced by cauliflower crinkles
Sprinkled amid skull candy
Resonance, eat me alive
Aspire to consume each morsel
Crumbled, scattered along
Crackling rivets submerged  
Sequencing soliloquies into lullabies

Maybe minds are meant for mumbling
Mixing whispers while wind whistles
Wishfully right near nothing

Invision, I am searching souls
Such journeys jangle
Jamming icy stares
Fighting tall standing fixtures
Towering into screams
Deafening anyone brave enough
Lingering foliage flusters us

Come hither, life is togetherness
So kiss my intimacy
Should daring define lifetimes
Forever hues don’t fade
Saturation stings true here

i want to peel your skin back
and reveal your deepest sweetness.
to look at your veins
and memorize their paths.
maybe then i’d understand
why you are so rough on the outside.
it takes a lot of work,
digging your fingernails into the flesh,
pulling and pulling until you are bare.
but it is all worth it;
to visit your center,
to break past what conceals you,
and take you apart
slice by slice.

I yearn for something long gone in the depths of the future;
Not able to place a finger on its familiarity.

Discovering what is already known
Can be a clarifying process of redundancy.

When a step forward feels like a tumble backward
Toward the inevitable direction of it all.

When a puzzle forms around me
I stand there, inert.

The challenge beckons me further. It calls me closer,
Etching itself deeper into my path.

Smiling at the fantasy of completion on the other side,
A field of emotional mishaps rains down before me.