All these words  
tile the pool that
floods with meaning.

I start with a backhoe, displacing
brain-sized clumps of earth.
A few fickle particles escape
between the imposing metal teeth.

The mechanized bucket clinks
against a rigid texture.
I grab a shovel, bending my spine
to the task at hand.

Pretty soon the shovel only scoops up
unsatisfying fistfuls of dust.
It is cast aside for the broom,
revealing the smooth shape underneath.

A dingy film is spread around
by the coarse fibers of the broom.
I grab my toothbrush, furiously scrubbing
the chrome-plated formation.

Now all passersby
can bite my shiny metal
victory.

I am the fire hose,
spraying with full intensity
at the flames of my current obsession.
Sometimes I can hold myself,
until a meager trickle flows in another direction.
With my free hand, I throw a match.
It's only a matter of time before
the nozzle snaps like a magnet to the new blaze.

You twist my face
like the stubborn lid of a
jelly jar, until it distorts
into a Picasso.  
Sorrow and anger weaken
the walls of my external mask;  
burning, until it
drips away like candle wax.  
The ****** of interest strengthens
your indifference, and silently
its hand boulders into
my flesh like a cannonball through paper.

You wring out my heart, letting
the happiness trickle through your
clenched fingers,
into a puddle on the grass.

Edit      -> Copy    your unwavering presence, despite my fears
Insert   -> Link     our friendship across distance and years

Format -> Align   our innermost belief
Insert   -> Break   to strengthen our friendship in grief

Edit      -> Cut       your shallow, self-centered blabber
Format -> Bold     our impulsive, self-inflicted laughter

Edit      -> Undo    all the those hurtful things I said
Insert   -> Image  of endless fun-filled days ahead

After the sun retracts its harsh tentacles,
I leave the field,
dripping with exhaustion.
Gossamer fabric
falls limply about my ankles,
and with it, the weight of sunrise.
New dreams saturate my ambition;
or perhaps they are old ones,
lapping against tonight’s unfamiliar shores.  
My cheek kisses the country cotton sheets,
and I am reminded
that as the past fans out behind me
and the future shrinks ahead,
now is my forever.