under these ocean waves
sheltered from apollo’s rays
old neptune’s tower lays
with travertine and marbled glaze
and filled to brim with tiny faes
the twilight crawls with little haste
to bring a night that lasts for days

her spine
lay lengthwise
speed bumps for my
fingers
to carefully explore—
tracing out tattoos of a
satisfied itch
i mustn’t get too eager
idyllic in my state
sunken into my bed
and head into pillow
and my chest for hers
her cheek rides like
rolling whitecaps of the
ocean
upon my rising breast
her head is here
but her mind soars elsewhere
anchored in clouds of sleep
while i lay grounded
stroking across her back
staring at my
ceiling
drinking in all i can
with my finger tips
etching a route through
her spine

a ruddy thrush of experience

artifacts your chest

opal sheers of lineage

marred by remains

of precise and careful

additions to a calcium

body

accented by a

lightning storm quicksilver

river

coursing across neck

and chest

a mark to guide

breaths of life into you

every day i slave away
with matted hair and a face of gray
a neutral near, a hostile far
a passive glance at passing cars
a teardrop lake inside a sea
a lotus plant in skulls of tea
a vapor sky, a splash of lye
echoed calls of radio cries
a hidden wish leaves yellowed bones
a sour thought turns love to stones
that plug your stomach and drill your feet
with wants and wishes, with cravings sweet
that pull you under a wicked tide
an anchored flight, but then she died
so how could i

and in it she stood

awash with crescented chrysanthemums

with honeysuckle skin and wisteria eyelashes

and with it i said

if nights were like coins

id spend them all on you

and twinkle them between my fingers

shaking them up and admiring

the glint and value of

the night and its stars

and the coppery, nickel-y dusk

that stains my hand with

the bouquet of metal and flowers



goldenrod warmth

from nights and coins

invariably spent

alongside only you

with a perfume of

evening

and pressing summer heat

and my whispers and promises

that tell you

that if nights were like coins

id spend them all on you

the way i want you
so ethereal
i feel lighted as
we speak
my throat catches hard
my skin crawls; is gone
snare drum noses
in a cavity populated
with sugarbugs and
lightning rods
narcoleptic lips trace
arias of sand against
collarbones
my imagistic descent
into coral lined papers
inner tongue colors the
edges of our orchestra
our ballad of temperament
our skewed talents invoked
candelabra memoirs
a love of no soul in particular

so long we spoke
seething with breath
a troubled flutter
of a waxed
hour
pattered my nerves
your pins strike true
precisely placed
in my most
blank regions
why my envy
broke my callous
i cant say

a glimpse of a sketch

of an outline of an idea

glittered with the crust

of cobalt wrists

new emotions piano’d

against the tin roof of my memory

analogous to my god

complex

a possessive clutching

at your budding wings

shear them from you

before you can fly

trap you under me

my goading grimace

i feel regret

but i cant let you go

you are my umbra

please stay under me

a two dimensioned demigod

silhouette

how id feel without

my shadow

i havent the foggiest

in the temple at delphi

upon the steps afront

my crown of wire lay



a pile of birds

sat crossed in thirds

my lungs resigned in splay



phobos’ kiss afflicts with bliss

amongst the thistled dirt

the sowing of a new isle



what once was old

and now is true

are a bygone from the blue

Before Old Charon
I now stand
A bushel of berries
for this ferryman

The guardsman of fate
expresses his guilt
For the broken promises
he has spilt

forget the italics
of my brash remark
ford the wide styx
sings the deathly lark

a limerick of longing
hollows my mind
the verbal flogging
hardens my heart from the kind

what a twisted portrait
i now find myself in
a warped frame
broken at its corners
my colors are leaking out
i am free
my frown distorted to my teeth
my bones overgrowing my eyes
my mirth overflows and
fills the room
my candlelight scored
by the apollo of friendship
my twisted portrait
shredded in sum
i am now a positron to
a dipole
my teeth have grown tenfold
and now sit incumbently
outside my own mouth

as i lie i know its true
that aphrodite has sent me you
a queen to love, a queen to muse
a queen to tie me to cupids ruse
a bond to cherish
a face to ravish
you turn a pauper from the lavish
this ode's unfit
to catch your wit
but my heart, i swear, an endless flit
so let it be known
to queen from drone
from here unto, im never lone

a good too many
snaps and cracks
from the skeletal forest
a gentle brushing
from an acrylic wind
that promenades itself
on marble toes
that crack and shatter
in gouache throes of
violence that
gilds the branches in
flowing starlight
a craggy ribcage
of sprouts and succulents
that paint a scene with
watercolor irony
an eager scrawling
of earthbound rabble
that hops freight trains
and skips life away
a conflict of self
flourished in opals
and ravished in
scented velvet
a good too many
fears and
desires

She bore my soul

as the sun bears an orbit,

a volcano-skinned corona filling

My soul, caught by Sol

My satellite spirit

Tumbles just out of reach

You warm me and

suspend me in thine beauty

You arrest me and attract me

But I know to keep my distance

For one mis-teetered keeling

skins my delicate organs

and erupts me inside your

volcano lined furnace

As a star does

to it’s most foolish of followers