just like in the world
short poems
get read
more than the
longer ones
as we're all
searching for
perfect prose
concisely put
to remind us of
what it is
that we feel
- - -
how many blankets
will it take
to make me feel
warm?

In brief breaks
of my isolation
I fit in all the words
I did not have the
opportunity to share.
- - -
And just like that,
I spend the rest
of my isolation
wishing I had
stayed quiet
instead.

i don't want
to watch you bleed
i just wish
you helped me succeed

shaded by a sun hat
in the south of France
reclined on a lawn chair
overlooking the Mediterranean.

Parliament smoke lingers
in my frizzy black hair
but I smell like lavender
from the fields of Provence

my fresh preened scarlet nails
rhythmically tap the flute
of '95 Roederer Cristal
while I wait for my
Edmond Dantès
imprisoned--
to become seasoned
like my wine.

I grow old & impatient
yet still I'm waiting
for my dear Dantès
wherever he may lay

making sure my brow
won't furrow
and i eat bone marrow
so my lover will see
me just as he had left me
- - -
young & beautiful
sitting by the seaside-
my long smooth legs
stretched and glistening
in the sand where we
drank together,
bottles of cheap wine

console me
& just hold me
don't tell me i'm wrong
'cause i know i am

please
just let me cry
in your arms
while you hold me
like a child

i know it's my fault
i don't deny that
but for once,
please
just hold me
- - -
i'm pleading.
while my heart's
still beating

i have never been
the shy type
hiding behind
books and glasses
escaping to the day
i'm whisked away
into a whirlwind romance

i have never been
the life of the party
drawing everyone's gaze
magnetic and vibrant
as i dance with
a stranger on the
table

i have never been
the proper primrose
with neatly
stacked shelves
of all my
accomplishments

i have only been
the shapeless one
fading into the background
belonging to no one
with failure as my shadow
trying to make it another day
toward my tombstone