there was always time
for laughter and making love
but never enough

*ojc

You can’t feel pain
They said to the fish
They served him filleted
On a nice silver dish

You’re not a real person
They said to the slave
They whipped him and beat him
All the way to his grave

You don’t work hard
They said to the poor
They let them all starve
When they asked for more

When the slaves and the fish
And the poor were all gone
They looked at each other
And a war was on

The tears of love
Are heavy but few
They fall very rarely
But always for you

*ojc

I thought about always
On the train that day
As I rushed across state lines
To be by your side

And I thought about always
When I got your calls from jail
Counting down the days
Until I could hold you again

And I thought about always
When I had doubts
After coming face to face
With your addiction
Watching you weaken in a way
I didn’t know was possible
For a substance I don’t understand
But that knows you all too well.

But always means
The fight is no longer yours
It is ours

And always means
I love you through the weakness and pain
And monitored phone calls
And thin glass dividers
That might as well be miles thick
Because either way
I can’t touch you.

And always means
You're the only one
Who could ever make me brave enough
To think about always


*ojc

Fortify me with steel kisses
Of lips that are sealed
As the guardians of all my secrets

Hide me in your arms
Behind muscles that could stop trains
So long as they were hurtling toward me

Dance with me forever
To the song of our joy
That cannot be heard by anyone else

Let the rest of the world crumble
Let us even crumble with them
So long as I feel your hand in mine
I am safe

*ojc

A knot
Is never just a knot
A knot
Is a problem
Meant to be undone
Or a solution
Holding something together
And never anything between

There is a knot
Between you and me
I extend toward you
And you toward me
And we get tangled
And I don’t know
If it is a good knot
Or a bad knot

*ojc

I have folded up this pain
And tucked it into a drawer
One that I never open
But that sometimes opens itself.

It is not often that this happens
But when it does
I take out my pain
And I fold it again.

Someday I’ll hurt again
And have a new pain
Thrown carelessly onto the floor
Crumpled and beautiful.

I will keep it unfolded for a while
And study its shadow at night
The raw sight of fresh sorrow
Lingering around me.

But then I’ll get tired of it
It will start to look ugly
Always in the way
And I will fold it.

I will put it in the drawer with the other pain
The pain that doesn’t hurt anymore
But that remains with me
Because of how it used to hurt me.

So my new pain will not be alone
And I will not be afraid of it
Because in this drawer it is mine
But in this drawer it cannot hurt me.