angel tears fill rivers full
and pull bulls full/
of broken bones and stones
oh, how Perillos shone
pledged life to the throne
Cruel, merciless Rome/
and fell to his death
with one last shuddering breath
said,
"they'll **** you yet"

Silver sideways scratching skin
A balustrade,
I quickly fade,
A rib-cage, paper thin

Carcass on the floor
No more
breath in your lungs
You clung
To every last flit
Of the eyelid

Sticky legs on pegs
And bolts on windows
And buzzing in ears
A jeer
at my foolish attempts
To creep and leap
With a silly lump on a handle

It was a frightful sight
To my eye to spy you
In a corner,
Passed of your own accord

Goodbye little fly

Today was bracelets on wrists
And sugar bread twists
And rolled eyes
And white lies

It was the sound of the phone
Ringing off the line
And pen-ink shine
And clinking dimes

Today the sun shone brighter
Than the last
The clouds passed
And I laughed
At feeling trapped

Behind such pleasant windows

I suppose I long for those moments in the bright sunny parking lot far away from home again where the music is playing softly from the car and I’m smiling at the birds flying over my head and the flag is waving;
the clinking, sharp metallic sounds of the ropes and supports smacking against the flagpole are washed away with the wind and it sounds beautiful, like the early morning tinkling of the neighbor’s wind-chimes next door.
And here we are walking,
those I care about;
we are walking and there is the slap of our shoes on the pavement and it sounds so very loud in the bright sun, as if the sounds of our feet are much closer to us than even the air on our skin.
I am visiting my yehyeh and he is going to smile as bright as the sun beating down and tanning our arms and shins(oh, how easily I would tan those summers). My mom will worry and fret like she always does these days and she will make sure everything is okay- grandpa insists everything is just fine. Even during these times I longed for the neighborhood days- a memory within a memory- running down the sunny sidewalks, opening the hot metallic gates that have eaten up all of the sun’s rays- and then running through the mulch with my sister, smiling and happy and swinging and playing. Those days were full of smiles and small complaints about things that didn’t really matter- there is mulch in my shoe and I wanted the other swing, not this one. Then we would run home to hug amah and she would laugh and tell us she loves us ‘all the way from your head to your toe!’ and then I would giggle so hard- it always made me laugh, the way she said it and tickled my face and smiled! After that, time passed so quickly and everything changed in less than an instant. Now there is less talking and more of our worries are in our own heads and not shared at all.
Now the sun does not shine so brightly and the strange black hole that is eating the earth very slowly inches its way further and further into view, like the sun making its way down, down, down the sky until it is barely on the horizon...

You took my hand and lead me away,
past the clock and through night free,
out to the hideaway where the sleepless wandered,
we sat in the dark, under a tree-

Roots winding past our sneakers,
wet grass and muddied debris,
and stars meld into streetlights,
far past under the tree-

You took me into your arms,
you spoke so quietly,
but i'll never tell you that I heard,
every word, under that tree-

I know you said you loved me