Once you told me “I’m going to write you a poem”
I took your jawline in my fingers and held your eyes in mine and said
“Don’t ever”

only it came out a little strangled and raspy
like the voice cracking on a freckle faced pubescent boy

You didn’t heed my warning
and a week and a half later I got three pages of
star signs and
rose petals and
wishing wells and
my eyes compared to 24 other things

And three months later you started to look like
a wilting ivy
a dehydrated leaf
a floating corpse

and I still blame it on poetry
and the way it eats at your soul
and rips its way through the lines in your palms

it nails words into the gaps in your spine
and wraps itself so tightly inside you it contracts your muscles
until it controls you

until the letters desperately written are more like *****
just something forced out of you to let go of a little sickness

I could say
“I told you so”
if I was still 9 years old
and didn’t know how it felt to let a pen and 26 letters control you

I could say I told you so

but instead I am just buying my third cup of black coffee
and trying to find another pen

Beautiful

Darling you are beautiful.
Not just ordinary-sort-of-beautiful either.
It's not for everyone to enjoy,
Tis not to everyone's taste,
But it is there:
Ineffable beauty.
And it begs to be loved.
I would do so gladly,
Tracing your face's outline
Like it is a piece of art work,
Or the full moon in the sky.
It is so specific. So very you:
Beauty like no other.
You can't see it sometimes
Because it hides behind your smile
And sits above your raised brows.
It likes to daydream at times
In the crooks of your curls,
And takes a nap on your nose.
As a master of disguise,
It plunges into your eyes,
And finds there warm sea water.
It is a little timid maybe,
But with a few kind thoughts
You could lure it out
Into your own
Observable universe.

it's just a touch.
her hand on mine,
her lips on mine.
just a touch
to spin the world
the other direction.
a simple momentary
exchange between two
bodies in silence,
in laughter, in tears.
just a touch.
her touch is enough
for a lifetime.

Forever beautiful until I saw you in raw sunlight
and realized you didn't shine anymore
you told me you would always love me
and ever since then I can’t believe anyone

I hate April now
it’s one of my least favorite months
and I blame you for that

One of the last times I saw you in your
beautiful tall pale freckled naked frame
you were inside of me and
you looked somewhere at my chest and
said you loved me

But you could not look into my eyes

And about ten minutes later when I was
resting my hipbones on yours
I started to cry

And instead of holding me close
and drying my eyes
you pushed me off
pulled on your pants
and left

and that was when I realized you are a
fox with a stone cold heart
incapable of caring for anyone

Much less loving them

The Love of God is greater far
Than tounge or pen can ever tell,
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.

The guilty pair,
Bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win,
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.

When time on earth
shall pass away,
And worldly thrones
And kingdoms fall,
When all men here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills,
And mountains call,

God's love so sure will yet endure,
All measureless and strong,
Redeeming grace to Adam's race
The saint's and angel's song.

Were all the oceans with ink filled
And the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above
Would drain the oceans dry,
Nor could the scroll
Contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, so rich and pure,
So measureless and strong,
It shall forevermore endure
The saint's and angel's song.