I clench my jaw when I sleep, for
fire lives on my tongue and I
don't want to burn
the bed sheets.

each accusation
rolled from you
upon silver tongue

but still you waited
            breath bated

for me to lay down
my defense
 past perfect tense

standing still I
            waited

and the silence
             grated

which I truly
            hated
      
the meaning became
                   overrated

  my feelings became
                 desecrated

  your fallen look was
                       belated

               as my spirit
                      deflated

your cruel words were
misstated, predated
 translated and unrated

     and duly marked as
                       unrelated

                     as I calmly
                           waited

       for you to ask me
      *one more time

Marooned

Vapid beauty of this room
Frothing carpet, ocean blue
One wall me, the other you
What lies between is residue

Scribed on soggy, shipwrecked parchment
Questions asked, time forgotten
Who are we?
What do we know?
Into these questions Summer flows
And thrashes at your Autumn’s brinks
Yearlong they torment my brain
Infringing on every season

If not for the manic scheme
To love and having loved be loved
This correspondence to a distant land
With stars, more numerous and brightly lit
Than my burgeoning highway exit
Would by no means have left my hand

But if, against all odds, it will prevail
Extolling truth’s folly, my sorrowful tale
Quells with reason my groundless pride
At having docked on your passionless harbor
Unloading platonic cargo during our youth’s ebbing tide
Must not create union of body or mind
You swallow my horizon, like the sun twilight
Though, one need not chase that orange orb for tomorrow

In this night without fortitude, lewd humor consumes me
Singing with the mouth on my head and your voice inside
I plunge into darkness
Skimming its silky surface
Before zipping it behind me

Shall I drown, as I have lived?
In vain, my dreams your subjects
Taken for ransom in your heart’s Tripoli
Not surmising recompense, I forfeit this
A note belying resonance
Of my heart’s last echoed throe
One desperate effort, giving up
Feed every vestige to the void
Wading, torso encumbered
Each sullen relic of your memory
Falls to the deep’s frigid ebony
Then, only too late am I cognizant
That my own breath is tribute yet spent
Therefore if I were to float or swim
I’d give you every ounce of who I am
Convince you to relinquish me
From your tepid, spurning sea
Then lying beneath moist underbrush
Slowly, breathe no more

Great green melon,
I see you there.
A “smash hit”,
Center stage,
All eyes on you.
The mallet’s lifted,
Your smooth ripe skin,
The target
Of a sad little man.
Why he hates you,
No one knows.
Repulsed by your taste?
Or did you choke him once?
A genocide,
Of a whole new kind.
Your flesh gets split,
And your juices fly,
Yet laughter fills the air.
Great green melon,
You have received an honor.
To die by the hands
Of the great.