I find my smile with the lights turned off...
Where I don't have to pretend to love what I don't
With strangers in my mouth
That taste like nothing;
They fill dimmed rooms
To hide painted-on faces,
And they fill their bodies with spirits
Until they forget their own names...
and slowly the darkness begins to fade:
The walls unravel and there they are left
With their colors bleeding out into the
Unrest they succumb to...
they find their smiles with the lights turned off.

Only clear are my thoughts
When the sun fails to shine
With memories so vivid
And often sublime;
A voice traveled somewhere that
Was not my mind

beneath each shriek my mind belted
were the words I held true;
if only these words were not uttered from
you . .

love is a word
love is a verb
love is not outspoken afterthoughts
it is laughs
and your hair in the wind
the flowers grazing the
tip of my nose
as I breathe you in;
it is not a melancholy vibration
overtaking my entire being
as if I am not worthy
of the word of love..
but this body made of decaying wood
and rusty bolts is no longer
the home for this lingering hopelessness
I once called home
love is a verb
that could only beg to describe your active
presence.
love is an adjective for the way I feel when you laugh over nothing and our endless sorries.
love is a noun because it is who you are
to me.

your body is the heavenly host
to the only love I've ever known
and I am home as the embrace
of your supple skin encompasses mine.
I kiss your face even if
your five o'clock shadow is peeking through
and scratching against my the tip of my chin
because no one's lips could ever taste just like yours.
and I do not love you merely for these physical encounters;  
your mind is a glorious entity full of
ideas, thoughts, and aspirations
that I hold dearly to my soul.
I remain in fear yet am fearless
in your presence because
another touch could never feel like yours
and another voice could never sound like yours
and no one’s lips could ever taste just like yours
because your body is the heavenly host
to the only love
I've ever known.

from a world of shadows
there once was a girl
with tulips for eyes
and dandelion curls -
when crowds softly wept
her colors unfurled;
for she held onto strength,
not onto the world.

If only I could
Radiate as the sky,
I’d express this
Inexpressible adoration
Welling inside.
But I am not the sky,
I am every crevice in between;
For behind my fragile frame, I
Am most often unseen.