Have you ever held your hand still
Just above a river’s passing water
Liquid rushing by reaching for your skin
Jumping up; eager to commune with you
Beckoning you to dip a finger in

It seems almost sad
that the moment in which I am most content
exposes itself only when I am halfway drunk
at 2 a.m.
Alone, and writing.
The silence and darkness are consoling
in a way.
For these two elements are often necessary
for
true
self-indulgence.

I found you.
Amidst distant humming grasshoppers
and humid evening air,
I found you.
Or maybe you found me.
Maybe you’re finding me.
2 am came early last night;
our words far too honest,
our eyes far too tired.
Maybe our bones too.
Ignoring time’s mandates you
ripped my heart straight from my chest
with bare hands
(living)
(pulsing)
(messy)
and laid it on the table next to yours.
I’m still not sure how to put it back,
so I’ll carry it around with both hands
until you’re there to examine it again.
And I’ll spend all the time apart wondering
why it feels better
outside of my ribcage.

country music
summer nights
getting close
by fire light
sneaking glances
drinking beer
making sure
the coast is clear

pretty girls
excited boys
experiencing
summer joys
paisley on
the radio
guessing just
how far to go

sweaty bodies
kept in check
in chairs out
on the cottage deck
slip down through
the boat house door
to swim out to
the float off shore

summer boys
and summer girls
swim out past
the water swirls
washing off
the summer dust
and giving in
to summer lust

cottage campers
paddle by
as silently
our campers lie
sneaking glances
drinking beer
making sure
the coast is clear

country music
summer nights
knowing when
the time is right
now is time
to turn the page
as two young campers
come of age.

In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your journey?

i know i'm not as sad as i let myself believe
but sometimes it all just feels so real

what is this in front of me?
this false notion of what i'd like to be
take it away; i can't see
this is too painful to be a reality

i'm caught up in all the wrong things
and got my affections stuck in all the wrong places
silly me, will i ever learn this time?
i've been here a thousand times
and all i've done about it is rhyme

there really is no excuse;
maybe i am just a desperate soul
but i know the truth and i think that makes it worse

come here
don't come here
hold my hand
but not my heart

i just need someone to love me but i don't want to fall in love.

if words are food for the mind,
then here is a glimpse of mine
if words are drugs for the brain,
then here is why i'm so pained.

abandoned, abhorrent
abnormal, absent
abstract, abuse
addicted, anxious

betray, bitterly
blank, blasphemy
bloodless, breakdown
breathless, brutal

captive, casually
catastrophe, cautiously
change, cigarettes
crucial, clueless

damaged, dangerous
deadly, disastrous
disheartened, disconcerting
dramatic, dreading

eager, eccentric
ecstasy, eerie
effete, effortless
embittered, excess

faded, failure
faintly, fallacy
faltering, fatally
fearfully, finally

garbage, gawky
gibberish, gloomy
gone, goodbye
graphic, gratify

hallucinate, harshly
hazy, heartless
hectic, helpless
hesitant, hit-and-miss

idiotic, idly
ignorant, intimacy
illogical, imaginative
infatuated, intoxicated

jealousy, jittery
journey, journal
joylessly, judicial
junk, juvenile

keen, killing
knavish, knocking
knockout, knotty
knowingly, knowledge

laborious, lacking
lame, languishing
lifeless, literature
lovelorn, lugubrious

madness, maintenance
make-believe, malaise
mean, melancholic
mellow, melodramatic

naff, naivety
nameless, naturally
nauseous, nebulous
neglected, nervous

oasis, objectionable
obliged, obliterate
oblivion, obscurity
obsolete, one-and-only

pacifist, pained
pale, panicky
paradise, paralyze
passionately, passively

raging, ranting
rationalize, raving
realistic, reasonable
rebellious, reckless

saboteur, sadness
sake, sameness
sanity, satisfactory
scar, steady

taint, tangled
tasteless, tearful
telling, temperamental
terror, theoretical

unaffected, uncanny
uncommon, unconsciously
undesirable, uneasy
unfortunate, untidy

vaguely, vanish
vanity, vanquish
versatile, vicious
violence, voracious

waiting, waking
walkout, wanting
wasteful, weary
withering, wrecking

if words are food for the mind,
then you've seen a glimpse of mine
if words are drugs for the brain,
then no wonder i'm so pained.

*-djs