Her mind lives in a quiet room,
  A narrow room, and tall,
With pretty lamps to quench the gloom
  And mottoes on the wall.

There all the things are waxen neat
  And set in decorous lines;
And there are posies, round and sweet,
  And little, straightened vines.

Her mind lives tidily, apart
  From cold and noise and pain,
And bolts the door against her heart,
  Out wailing in the rain.

Oh, I can smile for you, and tilt my head,
And drink your rushing words with eager lips,
And paint my mouth for you a fragrant red,
And trace your brows with tutored finger-tips.
When you rehearse your list of loves to me,
Oh, I can laugh and marvel, rapturous-eyed.
And you laugh back, nor can you ever see
The thousand little deaths my heart has died.
And you believe, so well I know my part,
That I am gay as morning, light as snow,
And all the straining things within my heart
You'll never know.

Oh, I can laugh and listen, when we meet,
And you bring tales of fresh adventurings, --
Of ladies delicately indiscreet,
Of lingering hands, and gently whispered things.
And you are pleased with me, and strive anew
To sing me sagas of your late delights.
Thus do you want me -- marveling, gay, and true,
Nor do you see my staring eyes of nights.
And when, in search of novelty, you stray,
Oh, I can kiss you blithely as you go ....
And what goes on, my love, while you're away,
You'll never know.

It’s easy to love a ghost, hard to love a breathing soul.
But we try.

Hard to build a home from the ashes of careful memories stolen by the careless winds,
Growing fond of the cold and safe in the silence.
A stranger’s words dripping from empty lips stay the night for promises’ sake,
Returning with different faces.

Then, for no reason beyond a change in the weather or a penny found on the ground,
A stranger asks to stay.
Stories are slow and some pages lost,
As shy laughter finds its way into dusty corners.
Tears come and hands linger,
Weaving words on chests to keep warm at night.
Far beyond knowing the end of the story, tracing footprints made a thousand times,
We make it to the edge of the earth, and find it’s not so scary.

When the stranger tells me his name, I find I already know it.
I’ve known it since he asked to stay.


It’s easy to love a ghost, hard to love a breathing soul.
But we do.

The air was cold that night
Our breaths thick between us
Like the clouds forming above
I shivered, letting you draw me in
My skin burning hot from your touch
Raindrops fell around us
Making me ****, wincing in pain
As the droplets hit my arms
Sizzling and turning to steam
Discomfort and unease filled my mind
As I looked at you for the first time in a different way
But that smile that played on your lips just pushed it away
I placed my hand within yours
And it was as if I was shaking hands with the devil in disguise
I let you lead me down your path
Only to be left alone in the dark
I was not afraid
There were no tears pooling in my eyes
My pride fought hard to stay afloat
And now I'm just making my way down my own path
I just wish I knew then, what I know now

I will never regret holding your hand
How can I regret something I once wanted so bad
And if you think the broken memories and promises are collateral damage then you are wrong
I never asked you for love poems or songs
All I wanted was to hold your hand and when I did it felt like thousands of tiny sun splashes were dancing in my eyes my lips and oh my god my thighs
I will never regret because regret in this case is weak
It would defy and soil the what seemed like a bright future
Yes I do not regret but that does not mean the fights were something I looked forward to
The Godzilla like monster I turned into every time you would crawl under my skin because you knew oh you knew
You knew that I liked tea with milk and if you step on my foot I will have to step on yours
You knew too much and yet nothing at all because that’s what it was supposed to be
We would go on yelling sprees over specks of dust
But in everything we did there was a lingering presence of lust and with that always an element of mistrust
It would gnaw on my nerves and rip out cords of my patience
The necessity to repeat, repeat, repeat the conversations made them looooong and tedious
And somehow we didn’t notice how it became so serious
And when we became ignorant we started to fade
Slowly but surly we obeyed the laws of disappearing
One missed call, two unread text messages, three kisses from a stranger
And just like that you disappear.