Night fell
And we witnessed the brilliance of man's folly,
Every note falling in deciduous perfection;
Even prayers can be lost.

The stars flashed on,
The sun was nowhere to be found, and
And the moon belched like a drunken pirate,
Bending the trees and sending their leaves
Skyward, off to wherever they go.

There was a whisper
Between the blades of grass
We laid on.

There was a worry
Clouding over you
That told me there
Was to be more.

Candy cane fragrance
With a dash of cinnamon salt.

Grinning through the darkness,
We touched palms like children,
Caught in that blue jay dance.

Morning came like mist over a hill.
Our eyes fluttered open and close.
She rose first, then I rose with her.
We met by the window and looked down on the street,
Both of us feeling the fleeting of a feeling.

Secondary rituals over coffee and pastries.
The sun came through that café window like a shotgun blast.
And when she paid and left,
A kiss on the cheek for cordiality,
She dropped a note that read "Until next time."

When you don't see another for some time,
You wonder what they came to be.
A periwinkle ***** of 5 cents a pound,
Or a river lady loon that sang without a sound?
The maze has many turns, until you reach the end.

Those monsters
Under your bed,
Their color's shining
Ox blood purple and red.

They told me your name.
They scribbled your address.
They want what you have.
They're wondering why your'e so stressed.

When she came by the place again,
I wasn't home, so she dropped me another note.
This one had only one word:

HI

I can't lie.
I was quite
Surprised.

I thought she
Would have
Less to say.

Two days past.
A knock on my door.
Moon light's *******
Stretched into my
Living room window.

My couch held her like an egg in a carton.
Toad colored hat latched around her head.
Hair covering her eyes, her mouth, her broken nose.
She wore orange flip flops, wiggling her toes.
A zit planted in the middle of her forehead like white rose.

She asked why I hadn't called her.
I told her that I didn't have a number.
She talked about her soon to be dead father.
I sat down to listen, thinking of my forgotten brother.
We talked with a space between us for a long time.

When she began to cry, she came to me,
Like a bee to a flower or a fly to fresh ****.
I felt her hand on my chest and her breath in my left ear;
There's no guilt like the wicked
And there's no faith like the religious kind.

Hand in a hold.
Love is a recyclable mold.

The tattered priest protects the walls
Of his splintered sanctuary.
Every dream had
Is another man's
Discarded memory.

Oh my sins, my sins,
Where should I begin?

When you're born to lose,
There's no thought to win.

6 months past
And still, she came.
Our love for one another
Was a knot
I couldn't untie.

A year past
And the stars and the moon
Were a cure that
Blanketed our child, our family.

Living our days out,
Mixing poison and penalty,
Running from a life
That showed any shred of reality.

Buried side by side
Underneath a bent orange tree,
I died one day,
She dying the other.

We use the leaves of Fall
For cover,
And the blossoming buds of Spring
For something
To reach for.

When I say the maze is long
And that the hours are heavy,
I meant not for your blankets to fall cold
Or for your room to awash with darkness.

She came to me that day,
Just like someone will come for you.
And I had no choice,
But to attune.