I broke my engagement today
I stared down
The double-barrels
Of
Holy matrimony
And decided
I wanted to live
A little while longer

he speaks to me
in verse
his words
drip
like honey
sweet
like nectarine in the summertime
sweet
he teaches me
spontaneity
he tells me not to argue
about the past
and just live in the moment
(because we have no future)
forget the years
the months
the weeks
the days, he says
i live for the moments
i remember the moment
when we first met
and
how you made me feel

exhales

i hang on his every word
like callused hands
on monkey bars
tightly
but
tenderly
i miss him
and he knows it
there's this
ache-in-my-bones
kind of yearning for him
and he knows that
the only thing keeping us
apart
is practicality
he and i both know
that what we had was
beautiful
but not practical
and unfortunately
we can't be 21 forever

Boy
You were up there
And
I was watching you do your thing
The words you were
Spittin’
Were electrifying
They shot sparks
From my fingertips
All the way up
And across my chest
They made me breathe
Deeper
And feel more alive
You spoke about
Finding love
You talked about your prom night
Boy
Those were some of my favorite lines
You talked about
How you cigarette-flicked your tux jacket
Out the car door
And
How when it was all done
You laid there
With the
Salt and sweat
Drying on your skin
Like grains of sand on the beach
I mean
We’re far from virgins
And
Those words were far from ******
But you had me blushin’
And
Jealous of some girl
That I never even met before
Boy
I love your intensity
The way you move your hands
And how the words
Just
Build up inside you
And leap out onto the
Tablet of my mind
And
I stood there anxiously waiting
To hear a lyric
From a song that
Only we know
But
It didn’t come

I’ll wait till next time

i'll always think of you as
the most incredible
the most original
man in my life
thoughts of you and i
together
forever
ran so smoothly
they bled into
one thread
one line
of my fantasy
mixed with reality
the truth mixed with the false
but
you probably won't even notice
the loss
when i'm gone
i'll just hold tight to the memories
of
you and me

so this is what its like
to be a woman
fall in love
way too fast
way too hard
leaving with a heart
not scratched
but scarred
so this is what its like
to be a woman
lose your innocence
way too young
to someone
who has never,
will never
love you
and while you're at it
abort his son, too...
so this is what its like
to be a woman
carry the burden
of years
of pain
on her shoulders
in her womb
in her tears
hopes
dreams
and
fears
so this
is what its like
to be
a
woman

and
she laid there
admiring
his
every
breath
every
sigh
every
dimple
every
scar
every
perfectly created
imperfection
and it was
heaven

Poetry is her escape from reality
She keeps her moments alive
In verse on the page
She tries to erase the bad
And
Highlights
And
Dog-ears
The good ones
Why should I remember the sad stuff?
What can I do with these new feelings
Of old heartbreak?
She puts her pen to the paper
She digresses...

Remember when we first kissed?
We left the party early that night
You squeezed my shoulders
Tight
Between your hands
“Let’s get out of here”
We put on our wool coats
And
Tip-toed over the snow-covered sidewalks
In knee-high boots
And
High-tops
You kissed me underneath the stars and street lamps
University City was our backdrop
You pulled away
And
Everything went hazy
My heart was beating so fast
And my mind was screaming
“Don’t stop.”
In that instant
I forgot where I was and where I was going
“This way.”
We took the elevator to the twenty-first floor
You unlocked the door to your apartment
And you
Let
Me
In
You had me wide open
I was vulnerable
And scared
But
Excited about the night’s possibilities
You know how people tell you
To always keep one foot on the ground?
Well, I didn’t listen
I had both feet up in the air
And
I didn’t care
For the first time
I didn’t care about how loud I was
Or
If anybody could hear me
I wanted them to
Why keep it in?
Why hold it in only to let it burn inside me?
It was my music
It was my song
It was my poetry
And
You helped me let it out
You helped me write it