as is the sea marvelous
from god’s
hands which sent her forth
to sleep upon the world

and the earth withers
the moon crumbles
one by one
stars flutter into dust

but the sea
does not change
and she goes forth out of hands and
she returns into hands

and is with sleep….

love,
    the breaking

of your
        soul
        upon
my lips

As mountains of paper continue to cover her desk, a student blurts out, “Why is my grade like this?”, the teacher knows she is behind, with grades, social life, motivation withering on the vine, but the students do not care, because Christmas is near, and when the next semester rolls around, another mountain will appear.

Cresting over the skin with a razor, a young woman learns the ins and outs of the society she is in, the blood and tears it takes to be seen, and for someone to love her back, all the while, a Swiss boy, age eight or nine, steals their mother’s makeup and paints on a smile, knowing just how, on the inside, the norms are becoming ever more fragile.

Morning after morning, the wrinkled man rises with the sun, pours a cup of coffee, sitting—listening for the train to roar by, the same track a much younger man, is cramming his brain full of numbers by, to get where he wants to go, an engineer, who was fascinated by trains at an early age.

As the city continues to grow crowded, and concrete confines the mind, the birds up north begin their epic journey, breaking free, leaving their homes behind, from high above the year’s first snow, the birds must think, I bet humans wish they could fly away from it all.

Why would someone
Put a bird in

A cage

Even with a velvet floor
The bird will lose its way

Down the hatch it went
A lit match
With an aged twist
Friends warn you
Of what’s to come
Tellin’ you
The end is no longer out of sight
Your body craves it
Your arms shake
As you laugh on
Trembling through the night
Swallowing
A lit match
With an aged twist

She was young
She was so independent
Parents cry—
About the wrongs she committed

They don’t try
They never try

But she doesn’t mind
She is young
And parents cry—
When their children outgrow their fantasy

This love is ****** and raw
This love is so sweet
This love is youthful
This love is free
This love is spontaneous yet steady
This love is complete
This love—
Is on repeat