I do love the feel
Of your big hard strong **** in me.
But I’m telling you
I don’t need you or your hard ****
for ****** satisfaction

Oh baby,
I know you’ve moved on
are gone
Except as …
friend? stalker? past acquaintance?
Anything but lover
Anything but confidante or soulmate…

I am stronger than I look,
Stronger than you know
Able, independent, self-loved

I am my own
“Oh god! oh god! oh my god!”

I worshipped you, loved you eternal…
now
I am my own god
I’ll miss you…but not too much
beloved ****

I’m sorry I didn’t make a life with you
I’m more sorry that wasn’t even an option
because to be honest
I still miss
…

You were the rhyme
i thought i could write back to life
Until i learned
the Reader had long since died

“Rest in Peace, Poem Beloved”
as fresh flowers i lay
on an overgrown grave

What if in my waning years
No child, friend or Love I find
close beside to truly know my mind?
This my midnight fear I ponder:
As time marches on
will I be left behind…

Please forgive me
I’ve been selfish but understand now:
You have more pressing worries than concerns of the heart;
More demanding business than that of this love.
Such distractions as passions are too much a burden.
I wish you well;
I wish you peace of heart and mind.

Just hold me  
Wipe away my tears  
Promise me  
Someday  
Because I miss you  

I think I hear  
Why  
But it doesn’t stop  
Me crying  
Or wishing  
Because I miss you
  
Do you know what I miss the most?
Friendship
I miss being friends.

Of course my heart would break for either:
death is death.
“code Adam” in the store today
fused my heart with his parent’s
heart beating fearfully for Wilder
age 7 in an orange shirt…
at least He was found

there’s no grey in black & white
until the bleeding starts
then, sometimes
there’s even color

Gege thinks he’s so clever
Whispering mischief in Didi’s smaller ear
As if Mother watching
never was a little sis
nor sat, a child, at her father’s knee
hearing each fascinating story
of how his older brother
stirred the ***…

don’t wanna make it weird…
but thanks for being real
I realize you don’t express feelings lightly

I won’t tell you “thank you”
Don’t wanna make it weird
Yet i am…thankful…
I treasure your trust
I treasure knowing you

Downhill spiral
Thoughts in mire roll
A mess
I confess
Obsess
Over the next
Is the ache
from a mistake?
Because I take?
or just the flu?
I’m missing you!
There’s no right
Submit? or fight?
Morning to night
Just wasting time
Asphyxiated mine
Broken rhyme
it all is wrong
an off-key song
Absence prolong
What this means?
splitting seams
Shattered dreams
it’s simple, plain
You’re on the brain
Through joy and pain
Time misses you
As I do, too

Cold rain-showers flood the winters here.
I’ve felt bubbling cool waterfalls
touch the senses like
ruby red ***** shots shared.
Cool waterfalls, winter rain showers, sensual shots
all remind…
like
the warm shower just now—long, sensual
Pleasure
I find
Myself
finally at peace with the water
(when fibers grip as muscles pulse
and water falls)
a heart throb? or break? so close . . .
both leave me gasping for life-giving breath
This water reminds…
If only to find
another guilty shot shared with you.
rather I’m
missing peace?
Am I pretending?
Where is life without a heart?
(pulsing muscle fibers of life)
where is my heart?
where is the missing piece?
Am I Really at peace with the water?
I am more now, at least,
than I was at 23

My head aches from
this empty sameness
or maybe it just aches
from dregs of flu
I know my heart aches
from emptiness of you
yet to find the filler
to replace your space

I really wish I could hate you
Or, better yet, just not care
Because it’s weak how i wear
This need for you everywhere
It can’t be helped, this seeking you
Burns endless in my aching breast
Please let me know you more

The rivers run dry, the rivers run dry, the rivers run dry tonight.
There’s a drought in the soul, a drought in the heart, a drought in the will to fight.
The water is turned to poison. The poison will crush your soul.
The water is turned to poison that burns up your whole
The castle collapsed to the dungeon; the dungeon is where we live
Dark and hungry and soulless with nothing left to give

Your smile
Lights the brightest
Fireworks.
You ignite explosions
spectacular
in my midnight sky.

I often cannot sleep in the deep
of night these days of late
when whispers of your memories
Rustle the pages of my mind
Until the world feels up-side down
hobbling along on a single foot
epitomizes sensations of art
meant to be shared by you
so I pretend to write and paint
playing at art as a child playing at life
whether calling it “house” or “family”
matters not when none of the actors
live in these cards
If only we could re-draw
would I hold your love in my hand
in another round of life?

I considered another
Something only you
A hidden clue—connector of hearts
Our secret

I picture you as A hawk n me a phoenix
(I do like a bit of worddplay)
I imagyne majestic raptors
Soared the vast blue ether of your hometown...
& I remember as a child
searching Southern skkies for a red-tailed hawk...
+
I alwayz loved this symbol of you
before we even met

I can’t decide where your bird might reside:
maybe as a guardian perched atop a shoulder?
I would like to see it often
not have it hidden as so much else must be...
Should it rest a reminder on my wrist
of how my pulse beats to rhythms of your memory?

As a symbol, I prefer an abstract drawing...
Perhaps a single line?
or geometric design
reminiscent of Cathedral glass?
(Metaphor of our lives)
Should I incorporate the ampersand?my constellation?
The hawk could be a water-brush design
Unfinished?

...possibilities

I wonder
what you might suggest
as an image of your memory
Buried ‘neath my skin

Silent
Aching
Gasping
Grasping
Grappling
Pressing heart & chest & lungs
Clenching in the guts
Every muscle weakened by the emptiness
Every nerve echoing the pain,
every rib drawn close in weeping,
cacophony of an arhythmic heart,
spasms of asphyxiating lungs
As the heart & soul weep bitter tears
Palpitations of The Missing…
Yet, the face remains impassive,
Secrets of the heart must remain
silent
though the heart weeps

You let my heart
run wild
with yours today
…
I wish I could say, it’s true…
but, rather, I just miss you

There’s a freak in her brain taking over again.
Dormant she waited, tortured then baited…
Emotional break…
“Once, Love? for memories’ sake?”
Yet, once is not enough.
Starved, she begs.
She’s rough. She’s plagued.
Demanding nightly, never lightly—
impassioned penance, love’s disease,
maintaining as fresh though long deceased
those mutual sins, two decades past…
Would you put her heart to rest?
Alas! her need is too deep, too vast
while you’ve no care left to soften her nest
Mourning, consumed, she resumes
downcast.

None of it really matters
long enough
to tear my heart away…
I am
Always returning to you

All it takes is a thought,
A sense  of you
hearing you, seeing you…
everything evaporates
and you remain
i always come back to you

Will you come back to me?

Go, then!
I know the taste of shame
Erase the guilty memories of my name
but, please, in some hidden recess of your mind
find a way, a place to love me if you can
or pity if you must
Just, please don't hate me.
Give a care that I am heartsick & forgive
this contagion crafting errors of my ways
mistakes that further distanced you from me
and see
I just miss you still.

They wrote it on her DNA
From mother’s mother’s mother
And all those aunts and uncles
The deacons, elders, teachers, preachers, leaders
They wrote her wrong:
  
“He’s weak, so be responsible”
“Don’t cry” “kneel down”
“Listen” “obey” “because I said so”
“sinner” “he died for YOU”
“Thou Shalt Not” … “shalt not” … “shalt not”…
“Be a good girl”, “say ‘sorry’”, “bow and pray”
“OBEY!”
“You must Forgive!!” Forgive, forgive…
  
(from infant, to girl, to ******* that grew)
Walk the line, speak OUR “truth”
THERE IS NO YOU!
REMEMBER: please, not pleasure
“That’s right, Kneel down, Apologize…”
Meek is pretty
Femininity
Yesss…bow…
seek PERFECTION

“Desire? NO! Desires don’t belong to you!”
Oh, Their desires? Honey, they can’t help it…

GIVE  
F O R G I V E
don’t live
don’t be
Just see
OTHERS
…
…
…
years
…
free
…
me
…
yet haunting whispers of the child’s ghost
remnants of her twisted DNA
Echoing cellular repercussions
through the years into the now
…it’s complicated…
(“May I have a rewrite?” she’d meekly plead)

“To late” wrote fate
she shrugs, “why hate?”
decides resigned just to deal

Speak to me in languages
of the sea, soil & skies
sing as the stars brushing velvet night
as the breeze teaching leaves to dance
Lace my lashes with flower dust
the glitter of time & memories past
splash the serum of love across my lips
color me with speeches of beauty
tonight
Sing me into sleeping dreams with the love in your heart
speak to me in languages
of *** and magic
Trace my desires
they all lead back to the art
when we were in love
with our hopefully
interlaced kisses
Speak to me
In whatever form your whispers take
As long as you promise
Future

I told the wrong times
from the wrong time zone
But that’s the simplest of all the wrongs
Like the wrong second…triple…more-
Guessing myself
How much else was wrong?
The illusion?
Delusion?
Or conclusion?
Action? the reaction?
Wrong? Wrong? Wrong?
& this is why I beg:
please don’t judge me…please!
I judge aplenty
all. by. myself.
Judging these judgments as wrong
Ever & forever
Digging, digging, digging for answers
Yet all i find —
more questions, more questions…
& the ever echoing certainty
One thing won’t die
One truth remains
One desire burns eternal
Is it wrong?
Wrong? Wrong? Wrong?
I suppose it must be
Since you’re Gone, Gone, Gone

Valuing far more than being valued
Decades & counting
Yet to find a lover who loves
as loved

sorrow

Is it external factors
Halting more chapters?
Or an innate absence of appeal?
Collapsing love once real…
Empty sorrow
Of endless empty tomorrows
Piercing heart is all I feel

Midnight aches
My body shakes
Stifled tear
to hold you near
Pleading ask
Remove the mask
Say truthfully
If you love me
All I know
I need you so!
Yet, sad these sighs
Hope only lies

I will deeply miss
these spaces where your mists reside
yet I cannot abide the pain
that rattles my brain when you hide
and anyway,
that room has said “goodbye”
so must I (with mournful sigh)
still, I WILL so deeply miss
these spaces where your mists reside

you dwell so deep within my fantasy
i cannot loose you from my longing
your name and touch flow through my veins
your body is my heat
your face and voice though faded, reappear
in watercolor visions of my dreams
your erasure fails
because you are my book of memories
you’ll ever be my always wish
when i frame my love
when i draw the walls of home
there you remain
my love
ever haunting my hope

You should know
My first choice would be
To send to you directly
You & YOU ALONE
If I’m an attention *****
It’s only for you
Yes, I desire your attention
Solely yours
If only you would let me love you

Happy Father’s Day

It’s my wish

Driving home today  
my heart missed you  
I embraced it--that strong emotion of longing  
A daily occurrence
I'm lucky to have you to miss


. . .

(now, looking back)
I WAS lucky!
still am
...to have known you...

I'd rather miss you (however painfully)
than have those memories nonexistent
I'd rather wish you would talk
than not know how your voice would sound

Though that hope no more can flourish
the sentiments remain:
I'm lucky
missing you.

I remember, in all 5 senses, you.
Dreams of you, light up all perceptions.

Visions pierce my sight
with vivid colors—red & blue
your tender eyes,
your beating heart,
lips lined with passion
back-dropped by seaside sunset brilliance.
You are my light.

Scents linger in mind’s breath—
you, so clean, shower-fresh;
tangy tangerine;
flowers--lavender and lilac,
varied hues of scented roses,
garden of our memories

My tongue, hungry for you, tastes our history as
shared popcorn, counted sushi, big soft pretzels, sampling tasty foods;
a shot of ***** from your mouth, light-headed shock;
and most missed that fresh long minty kiss; water licked from clean soft skin; the taste of you within. . .mmm

Your sounds whisper in my dreams—
rhythmic breathing; rhythmic heartbeat;
soft light lasting laughter ringing in my ears (though now long faded, those tones echo ever through the chambers of my mind);
gentle listening caring voice
(must you say “good-bye”?)

Forevermore I’ll miss, your loving touch—
warm & gentle, firm & safe,
strong secure hug, encompassing;
Playful moments, teasing
Would those moments ‘neath your skin,
Moments merging bodies, might return & lasting be.

I dream in all 5 senses wistfully,
wishing fully to sense you in reality.

Cool crisp morning
Bright blue sky with scattered clouds
Happy children’s chatter
Snow-dressed mountains in the rearview mirror
Rise regally across the fog-cloaked Sound
framed by earthy evergreen spires…
These vibrations of sound and light
trace smiles ‘round my face & eyes
on this otherwise monotonous  morning drive to school.

I will be there for you
When you are too tired
To be
Let me hold you
until you are ready
to Resume

I’m so tired of apologizing
for being myself

I DO think it’s true
(though regret muttering the words)
that the truest me
must be difficult for him to like
He preferred me
malleable

Is it so surprising
I dread the presence
of one who crushes my ME?

Yet still, it is I…
Swallowing so many words
that should reveal my truths
(they are not worth the conciliatory cost!)

I’m so tired of…

You are where my dreams go when looking for a nest
My soul seeks yours in freeing words when needing peaceful rest
Your heart will always be The Missing Piece of my own
Though I still hope the “missing” leaves  and we are simply Home

...

but until then, I offer:
tuck my love & care in your pocket
and keep me there, safe
draw on it when you need
(you’re going in my pocket, too)

I wish I had the nerve
Wish I didn’t revert
to fixing, soothing, fawning, self-erasing
I wish I could remember how I feel,
find the words…at the right time
but mostly find the nerve

How many months am I allowed to hurt
after a couple decades of injury?
I wish I had the nerve
to take MY turn!
Then, I wish he would just listen.

Yes, angry now
that I don’t have the nerve
to carve out a place for MY hurt
Or better yet
to find my own safer space to heal

Do you know that
No matter how much
You go away
No matter how much
You disappear
However much
You fade
It doesn’t matter
because I still will
Forever
Always
Love you

Heart
in so many pieces still
no you as glue

Remain
Meld love
Patchwork hearts
Meant to be
in a somewhere reality

I must believe

without remains
too empty

Come back to me
in at least one
reality

I wish you would tell me something real
I want to really know you
to know your worries & desires
I want to hear your thoughts & feelings
tell me what lights a smile
what darkens your eyes
I want to know the little annoyances
of your day
& the moments that bring a chuckle
however silly or ridiculous
I want to experience in real time
the ticking seconds of your reality
I want to really know you

Phoenix in the Ashes?
That dirge to the heartbreak of loss,
“Ashes of Life” echoes in my mind of late:
“Love has gone and left me
And the days are all alike”
I
wallowing,
sunk in my sackcloth and ashes…

No flaming garb of vibrant red, instead shades of grey and black course coal
serve as my meager cloak & bed.
Those tongues of fire were so enchanting...
Now their bright blazing flames have died;
as smoke-filled skies remain to choke my breath–ashen
asphyxiation.
Amid charred lifeless trunks which
bely past vibrant verdant days
I wander awaiting years gone grey, a future
to further lay waste & topple the broken snags–to earth returned. . .
wait
a pause. . .
A glint of ruby red!
a single feather surviving?
molten scarlet letter “A” to lift from the ****?
witch who will not be burned up,
who cannot be consumed?
Has that resilient phoenix truly met a last cremation?
Or will her red wings yet arise renewed
Up from the “Ashes of Life”?