What heart has ever not been broken,
what soul has never sought and lost itself in pain?

And yet, to hold your broken heart and try to heal it
I’d pawn my soul and wander quite insane

I know my steps could circle
without purpose
one hundred years on earth and sky in vain
but I am the product of
a chip upon my shoulder; it boldly tells me
that I am the one your heart and soul could save

A thought indecent
claims to know
the you that I miss most
the you I've not yet met
and long for
prematurely

I miss your skin a day too soon
a kiss before its taste
and so I catch myself falling inertly
in thought consumed
veins first
waiting, waiting
waiting for time to bloom the day when untouched skin
and unkissed lips take form and shape of all indecent thought exposed
lived amidst the tender sounds of rustling sheets
in the warmth and taste
of strangers
known

Rebellious and insolent
my thoughts return to seek for you
to find an empty fighting ground; there
long ago two hearts collapsed in love
insane

And so I try again
as I take a final blow
and watch my soul’s remains
laying face up mid-sun
not knowing how to live
not knowing how to finish dying
holding a permanent stance
against letting you go
there is no final breath

I am without your many shields
exposed ever so fatally in the promise
to protect
and bleed in different shades of red
as I remember your left hand
gently covering my face
while the right swift and skilled
split my heart in two
beyond hope or repair

I am without complaint in all your strength
and in the bluest of your hues

He was a man who stopped time
stretch a second in love
as much as he wanted

This was not the case
for Saturday traffic
he left before she got there

Sitting at the corner table
she ordered a cup of coffee
-for here-
in case he returns for that napkin
that napkin inscribed in chocolate

"I waited, you never got here
this flower is yours, if it's alive
when you find it
water it"

She did and drove home
against traffic with just a note
and a flower

Oh, if only the man that stops time
could also take care of traffic!

to sit across from you, conceding
thoughts
sprinkled with cookies of a rare chocolate chip type

looking on
as you take a last bite
and time
jealousy strikes the clock

-we must move on-

Yet I cannot deny
an Ode to that little piece
hated and adored at once

that one piece that soft
so quietly crumbled
from your lips
without reaching mine

sweetness tasted
of an imagined first kiss
in the flight of thought
and time

I make no claim
that I have life figured out

I simply live life
trying not to let it
not to let it live me
and take all the bows
while I'm sitting idle

its music a tune
that I did not write
request or handpick
so I count the steps
try to learn the lyrics
and show up in a gown
of pearls and sequins

I dance the dance
although once in a while
our toes will pay dearly
causing distance and pause
but I cannot stop
abandon its side
leaving the dance floor
before the last song

I am a solitary thought
toiling
to anchor down the heart
struggling
to keep
all sails in place
compass intact
and so I brace
as wind and current
take your side
slanting the heart

Allow me to rest
by the shores
of your friendship

I have walked
day and night
to get here

I know you are tired too
your journey preceded
you have been waiting

rest on my shoulder
another
will come along
with three glasses
of lemonade

How many times
would I return
in an attempt to be the storm
that claims your heart as an abode
on a day which no longer exists

How many
to create my earth
in subtle grooves upon your back
until the seeds of every kiss
begin to live, feeling your motive
and your warmth

How many
to reclaim the fruits
of tender mornings gone
contrary to the wind as whispers
from your lips

How many before the storm's
inevitable retreat
leaving only white flags
white flags in bloom
ceding to time
as scars
and beauty marks

And how many more
would I return
before the clouds break
in the sun

I do not know

A faultless poem
inkless, without erasures
written in fixed glances
in agreement
a matchless pact

Each verse, a touch
a breath, a gaze

suddenly, their storm
unleashed
ink runs intense
crimson hearts bleed
bodies collapse

their surrender writes an end
a kiss
their thirst, a perpetual desire
to rewrite with fault
they call it a draft
and find a blank page

'When you leave
don't hesitate
don't look at me
don't pretend to forget
something of yours, returning again
for just one last kiss
or the look in my face
that says I am okay, I will live

When you leave
there is no need to pack
all worth taking is mine
and I will need everything

you cannot
take a thing;
not the look in your eyes
before our first kiss
or the part of my soul
intact and inked
in the letters you wrote
that Sunday, last spring

I will fight to the death
to hold on to your gaze
at three o'clock in the morning
when you think that I sleep
and you quietly sing
sleep baby, sleep

I will keep every
word, every phrase
and, yes I will keep
every sound of exhaustion
when our bodies embrace
and the joy that it brings

You cannot retrieve
a caress from my skin
the light in your smile
dreams that we made or
the sound of your voice
when you promised to love me

When you leave
you will take just what's yours
an absolute me
my heart following'

I don’t know if you know
I carry you
in an involuntary sigh
in a constant exodus of yearning
and in the frantic deepness of all
nostalgic thought, shaking time and distance
to place me near you
in the closeness of your warmth
remembered

I carry you in sorrow
precipitated
in the absence of your voice
and in the memory of your rib cage molded
in the shape of ardent weakness
my embrace

I carry you, the braille at the tip of my fingers
life drawn in lines on my left palm
and in the carcass of calm interrupted
by the pounding of a heart’s ill-time

I don't know if you know, but
I carry you in the crown of memories consoled
and in the spine of excess
where I fall, between involuntary sighs
defeated
in your skin remembered
from the confines
of the heart

And I became a shadow broken
on the streets of introspection
latching on to
the better hour of days past

the air bitters with each breath
each thought
each moment
that will not be exhaled
as the chest caves
pinning the heart
against each stubborn heartbeat; hiccups
imitating life

and so I cling to the half
where no grave calls me by name
and the heart starts to beat
backward
to take cover

I left you without qualm
or hesitation, taking perhaps
the shortest path
through that red door
of doubts and roads
without redemption

I left you
standing in the plain
of shattered moments
walking on the edge of all
the maybes and the whys

but kept you deep in the veins
emptied of any sorrow
and regret, wrapped in
all that makes the
thoughts the single sense

I kept you
as the voice that raises breath
and blood and heart
in the dawn, in the rise and fall
of all our steps
toward each other and away

I kept you without fear
without a scruple, without
regard to rights or wrongs
and in the certainty of each
and every yes inside my head
taking that  never ending walk
without qualm or hesitation

We met by chance
or fate perhaps

-we met-

at a time held in place
a place held in time

-for us-

and we
left nothing
to chance

What shall I say
to the promise of bright moons?

Your lips, I never could refuse

And to your voice at 3:00 am
what shall I say?

You are better at this game
I’ve lost to you, my heart concedes

Is that a kiss that claims my
skin, my thoughts, the me?

Yes...yes...yes

I shall say yes to moonlit nights
so long as you propose
a kiss for every star

I will accept, as you propose
the moon is at my feet and always
bright at night

I shall say yes
my knight at dawn
yet
will you then
stay the night?

Dawn is a kiss, but
for me, for me
sunrise is in your eyes

and the world
the world will always be
for you to save
stay

I wish there was
a metaphor
for that freckle
on your face
and the scar
on your right knee

I wish
that I could capture you
in a metaphor
or three

for I'd dedicate just one
to the way
you look at me

then encapsulate
your voice
and the way it folds love meek
in the warmth
of your embrace
and the power of your grin

the third I would
set free
in the spirit
of your kiss
and the promises
it keeps, a tomorrow
in the spring

But there is no such a metaphor
I have searched
so far and wide
no verse, no word or rhyme
you are simply
the one metaphor
that is impossible to write

set so deeply
in the mind
so much deeper
in the heart

Do come for me
when the night swallows me whole
bring sunlight in your words
come rescue me

Do come for me
when life has failed me so
and
I am standing on a bridge
come talk to me

when fate knocks at my door
a day before I go
please cover me  from harm
don't let her take me

Do come for me
and bring sunlight
and bring hope
break my chains
and warm my blood to save me

Don't cry for me
if all attempts to save my soul
have fallen short of hope
if my  mind has become mold
release me
let me go, do free me

Your courage
has ******* fate
you honor life, never death
in silence and with grace

without striking a cord
you do it not for praise
now hear me

if I break
before you get here
do  pray for me

A single gentle gaze flows unleashed
moving her soul
as the veil of a shadow leaves its restlessness
to bring the melodies of untouched winds

harmony crowns the blossoming fig trees
at summer’s end
eyes meet, lips touch unhurriedly
professing love’s unstirred resilience
becoming a last breath
each other’s end
drenched in the warmth of honeyed fruit
consumed in gardens newly claimed

You said, I believed
we were free
to cloak the universe around our shoulders
and blend it with the one you built for me
in just four days

You said, I believed
that every kiss of mine
unlocked the stars and moon that light the sky
and each of yours would bring the sun
on golden strings to me

I believed, leaving my life
atop the palm of your right hand
where I was strong enough to leap
onto a second being
a second me, one without fault
one without flaw

We were supposed to see night’s fall
and save the day from what tomorrow brings

You said and I believed
night fell only for me
tomorrow brought the sun
too close to see

If I had a word to reach
it would be one you gently speak
a phrase, a verse in tone so kind
it tints the fiber of dawn’s light

your Words have traveled
in warmth sublime
on wings of amber
and quiet fire

without you
there would be no words
to speak, to sing
that if I had, but one to reach
it would be one you gift to me

Oh how I want you to forget
forget that day
and meet me Thursday noon

-our place, room thirty-three-

there again
allow my skin to collapse over your skin
and wrap my final breaths
around your fingertips

Oh how I want to breathe you whole
entirely from within
until your skin becomes my skin

Thursday noon
the inn, room thirty-three
do cause my final breath
I am not afraid

It is the hour of always, at this time
you are obvious in my eye
and wispy layers of vivid thoughts
gather in the grace of sentiment
embellishing the sounds of a frail mind
  
It is the hour of always
at this time, I cannot heed a blink’s delay
suspended on the lid  of a solitary thought;
running to your side
  
                                                                ­     A second is three days away
                                                            ­                                    I cannot wait

   I am me in the absence of me
losing ground within your stance
arriving in your arms
drowning slowly in place
I am sound within your hands

You ask that I write in butterflies
and of soaring blue jays on new flight

that I write from tranquil days
and scarlet painted nights

you ask for the memory of a smile
in inks intense red, dense, bright

You ask that I take the remedy
of a promise kept
and release to the wind those broken
those never made

And I tell you, I can’t.

If I must forget you
convince me
that love is the hollow
of words unwritten

Remind me
that thoughts are a trespass
all things unwanted

Whisper a word in the wrong place
a misstep towards a Thursday
torn from the walls in May

Teach me
to think love
an inconvenience
an imprudent heartbeat
at the wrong time of day

Show me
what I must forget

I know not how many moments we left unlived,
holding in the lining of a kiss ungiven
or left to wander the streets uncertain,
forever weak at the knees.

I am, but a word
buried in the spirit of intention, lost in the tic-toc of time
yet a phrase that grows free  
from truth so blindingly sweet
it can only fall from your lips.

One that wants and breaks
at the top of the lungs
when yearn uncontained folds me in your touch
forms me in your arms
-clay within your hands.

I am the space between dreams
that wilted in the tired hour,
carry without strength in the wind
yet for a moment, a brief moment
I still stray in the scent
of your skin.

To be so close
your breath feeding my breath

-flesh-

veins running through veins

-sustenance-

the chest shelters you near
to touch an image in my head, just one more step

-stillness-

the chill that settles in, trying to think in an interrupted place
-let go, wait…
I want to hear beyond your thoughts
the right and wrong –what is it, do you know?

- your eyes-

beyond the second that splits veins at every stare
just one of yours
and a pitiful attempt to disobey
-the flesh, and thought and veins-

I cannot and I fall
every time
disgracefully close

-asking for more-