drown me
and breathe life
into me again
i beg of you
bathe me
wash me from myself
swell
and break
into my skin
curl around me
and take me under

I can see it
Just as the day I arrived
November leaves decorating freshly dug soil
Fluttering down onto a tombstone
From bright and vivid
To crumbling and dead
Someday I’ll die
The thought is so strange to have in my skull
Wrapped around a case of pink fleshy synapses
Everyone dies
I see it around me
From behind tempered glass and blurry corneas
“I’m sorry”s from a chapped and dull mouth
To every lover of a lifeless corpse
Dressed in silk and lace
Skin so pale it glows with false rejuvenation
When I die
I want to be buried in rosewood
My coffin filled with petals and bluebell skeletons
So that when I am unearthed
I am covered in the rancid stink of rot
That is not just my own
Larvae birthed in my hollow womb
Giving life to the cycle of death
When you die
I will not be far
Whether I am young or old
I don’t think I could take
Thinking about your beautiful corpse
All alone, in the desolate dirt
Decaying
Deteriorating
Destroyed
By undeserving maggots and writhing ****
Feasting on glorious flesh
Never to know how precious it once was

summer is all

bare feet on concrete
diaphanous heartbeat
dustings of sand
and holding your hand
sun bleached hair
monarch winged air
prismatic sprinkler spray
and long, hazy days

bored, we scratch our legs
with blades of dry grass
watching the clouds in the slushie blue sky
eating our fill of cherries (they stained my dress!)
and floating, floating, floating away
on the dandelion seeds of childish wishes

Your birthday is soon
The air is ashen
Scented with burning leaves
I ride this shaking yellow chariot without you
Passing yellow-green crops and empty ditches
It’s rather lonely, really
You’ve finally gotten a car
Though you don’t like it all too well
It’s old and used
But there's no need to worry
It will take you where you need to go
Your birthday is soon
You’ll be an adult
If you could truly call eighteen years an adult
But I’m proud of you
You’ve grown so much
Even taller than me, now
Maybe someday, you’ll love yourself as much as I love you
I wish I could do the same for myself
Soon, it will be my birthday as well
I’ll be an adult
But you know I’m still a child
Small inside and immature
Thinking about the childhood ripped away from you
Of laughter and joyous grins
The large hands of a father that gently grip little fingers
The one we both deserved
Your birthday is soon
And we’re almost off to college
And though you don’t believe you have a future
I know you do
With your graphite-stained palms
You manifest entirely new worlds
I find it beautiful
And you take yourself for granted
Your birthday is soon
And as I write these words
This terrible jostling machine slows to a stop
Peeling my body from navy leather seats
I dig out my keys
I will head home
Just like I always have

"after 6 beers," says crazy george,
"she's not gonna be looking any better."

                      *       **

Oh, woman!
wounded spirit
of moonlight and broken glass

Oh, fiery night
Oh, heat
raging, dazzling light

the wild place
till the red morning light

till the red morning light

hold me tenderly
hold me with those gentle eyes

hold me in your arms
far from shadows
where the nightingale sings

till the red, morning,  light.