These words that span two hearts
       polarize each day's interlude
              

so close when elbows hug.

In the wake of the sleeping trees
        we shine like fire

Opportunity grows flowers

When I lap like green-gray waves at rocks grown
    tired of holding themselves upright, collapsed into
          weary sand that props toes like a damp pillow

And you breeze, clouds tasting raindrops like children
    forever adrift, sailing between future hopes that shine
               through dark blue sky like candle-flame eyes

Our worlds collide in a marriage of foam and spray
                 harmony at its finest

We are both the good eggs
Beating hearts and loving minds
These little bits of pure joy
Light our world up from inside

And that's what keeps me going
And that's what gets me through
When each and every morning
My waking thought finds you

I find the places we have been
    miss us while we're away

for rivers to know laughter and then
          only the rush of water

            no parameters, no
         sense of urgency,
                
       nothing compares.

A sliver of sky, soft framing, green eyes
Her smile peeks up from my shoulder

In days sharing time, the comfortable try
To imagine when they are older

Remember the time you asked
    why we can't just fast forward to the
        house and the wooded state and
                our well-trodden garden?

I understand now.

         And I would.

I could trace the trail of heartbeats from where
yesterday began and be right back where I am,
but something's different
               (this is new and beautiful)

We stamp letters with the tiny feet, cook
chicken parmigiana meat, our timeline
means a lot because you're in it

(Here and now I'm feeling like I'm living deep
inside the house we picked)

I can almost taste it
     and I'm homesick.

Wait between the poles like fingers of forsaken blue accusing a painted sky
Lonely color cast aside to film across a water like light spread thin
The ink abandoned in lazy dribbles
Clouds riding muddled indigo

Wait for me there.

Have you ever had a moment when you were
right where you should be?

     I've just had a day.

the stillness is never still
   and all the world is a
             door left ajar
        without you here

On the eve of the
    time when I saw
          you in lights
              there arises a feeling of aging

      am I yours, are you mine, there we
                   are holding hands spending
                       time that will let us (someday
                                    we'll settle down)
another year,
        another number written
                  on a sleeping page
             (they've gone and shaken awake every
                      dreaming soul to ask them what
                                    it is you could be calling
                                                         ­ me to say)

  talk about the house that we will
                    buy and decorate to
                              be our home

(I like to picture us there on our own)
                        it keeps me focused
                        and warms my bones
        look how we've grown

Listen up, sweater.

   take good care of my love now

         when her joy is boundless, hop around like a fool and
         revel in the excitement of each crisp little sound

                and in the cold nights lay warm beside her, whether as
                pillow or cuddlee and be the soft whisper for hands to hold
                the mooring point for beautiful dreams

                       (you are hers while I'm away because
                             I am hers no matter where I go)

            and in that rustle of fabric, that cloth to smooth skin
            do speak my name
                                 and retain all our scents when we laughed in her
                                 arms so she'll smile and close her eyes and
                                 burrow into you

listen up, sweater.
               take good care of my love now

every candle that flares up like a
    match struck between timelines reminds me
            that this world, this beautiful
       misshapen globe we call home has

                   room for me,       for you,
                               and most importantly
                                         for us.

It's a silly thought but
    am I being tested? compared as
                  one of two?

I hope not.

My vision should be pretty good
                (but you are all I see)

this feels like waking up and
falling like the
       rain outside my window

where messages
    stall when they're in sight and I am
                   tortured by the unknown note

        unhinge and swing wide

  I can't sleep inside this
       distance that's between

I want to disappear
       into a poem and compose a
   phrase for you to follow

I feel like a tree that has finally
     realized how deeply
   rooted two smiles shine, two
           smells persist under tickled eyelids, the very
                     way we exist individually but somehow
     live
          together, as if the world in all its
            wisdom has nudged in on the fact that I
                       cannot imagine my
                  life without you

tracing hands on a bench

        hold out your finger, I'll
    circle it in burnished gold

let's go on adventures, it's
   the simplest things that stick in
       your mind and hold us together
              like a well-wrapped Christmas present

broken
            but still smiling
     :)

each breath fills me to the brim like a
    pitcher of pure sunshine

   ribs
        e x p a n d i n g

                if I do break, it will be
            with the biggest smile on my face

You are the reason why I
wake up every morning

                and do you know why?

         because I believe you can do anything
    and I want to
                              extend that anything
                   to the moon and back

we'll build a fire tonight
     welding your heart
              and mine

you can hold my heart and feel its rain
      and pretend my dreams don't scare
                                           sleep away, but

be found, be
   now where I need you if
                    anything at all builds
                           us up like a wall, keeps
                         me around, dusty brick

What it is to be alone
     in the silence lit up by christmas rainbows
     with thoughts like wildfires
     scorching a mind set on sleep

            What it is to walk without purpose
                  along blackened avenues where
                  crisp leaves move out underneath
                  this carefully-balanced falling

And to think of the future
    a wish on the moon

I would ask you for clarity
  a wafer-thin string of words to
    melt on my tongue and
       sing me to sleep
                                        because clocks keep us apart
                                          and the closeness drives me insane

but I won't.

                        I'll keep safe harbor like a lighthouse
                            and wait for your ship to come home

I'll make it real
         someday

No one else loves purely for love

Your hand reaches down
like a thousand raindrops to
outline my tired skin

Not so much vulnerability as
          wide-open hearts because
     ten years from now we'll look back at
                   where we are and note the
                                 change in what's around
                                                with a smile, if I have
                                                            ­     anything at all to
                                                                ­                 say about life

that's right.
                             We.

Heavy breath, light
spirits
        as if my mind has at last
recognized the implications of not
   moving
           and decided to love and
                        love again.

Love is what I feel in each breath, in the
synchronization,
                and in the punctuated stillness
     like sun through blanketing clouds

I wish you'd understand how
deep this truth runs

maybe then you'd open your
heart

I'll throw myself under the bus every now and
again to see how I take it, an
      interesting game for a bit, but
                                 having watched this new man come to terms with
                    my self, I am joyous,
                                        elated,
                                            sprung up like a forget-me-not from the
lack of a pillow, misty mornings, love over my
              head like a river

                            still, rains are heavy - every single night changes something, the comfortable
                   shades of wet, defined puddles reflecting porchlight

do memories really die with us?
  
         no.
                   they are twin steps ahead to immortality, Westward smiles like plains and hills rumbling
                      as mountains of epiphany

            I'm trying to make certain of things that are impossible, goodness
that's enough of that, suppose stubbornly a
                                 change of scenery and open heart can achieve
                anything worth trying

      and she'll never know the picture half strung-out on forgetful
                    chemistry, unless I
                                  paint it just right
at least, that's my
          point of view

And, best of all
                 neither you
                        nor I
        have the slightest
    desire to move

the bitter cold grates against my nerves
a pleasant sound, not unlike
that of a violin

To place so much on a
drop of amber is foolish and
perilous and brave and wonderful

Beginning to look at such things as
internships and career choices, influenced by
"best places to raise children" and "quality
school systems", by parks and sunny
afternoons and artist representation
firms

I only wonder when the frosting on your
lips will turn into berries from our
thoughtful garden
                                (surely life is picking up
speed and painting on layers, colorful
intricacies of present and future)

(Who wants to know whether
     my heart is scalding still in this cold where
  lungs breathe melted snow every so
often, crystal air caught in twin glasses)

        -Who wants to uproot the
              depths I turn over, weaving
                   days into life worth living and
                cherishing people worth
                              the worry in mind-

                              [Who claims to be
                                      here like a
                                      break in the
                                      tide of grander things, forever in
                                      motion? whose
                                      persuasion stops those hands'
                                                  spinning for a single
                                                              implausible
                                                ­                    moment?]

                         Oh, it's you!

                                  well, that's alright then.

Believe in the unabashed wonder plain on my
open face

         we sow the future now, and my veins flow with the
                best for you

     nothing is torn down like walls, we'll live a long life, we
                                    will, as beautiful as the leaning forest before this mighty breath

   close your eyes, you
know I share my voice, now
         take comfort, everything
   is alright.

Tonight I begin the actual

the one hundred and fifty percent commitment to
everything worthwhile

and you, dear

     are at the top of that list

need sleep, will
love?

All choked up inside because
                             there is so much I never say, wanting
                                                    to share everything and grow up
           way too fast, that's not how
                           things work around here, not
               now under microscopes

                                  I love you to the point of
  not breathing, a precaution to
     ensure such radical notions remain where they
       are, but today you

                                           told me the greatest thing you could
                                               ever have brought to my ears, that you
                                                             ­          recognize
                                                        the simple truth, the difference, this
                                                wonderful knowledge you and I have of each
                                                 other, something others chase for so much
                                                            time­, and yes we have some of
that loosely-defined handhold on
reality, the ticking, but
                                           I need you to know, I
                                                               ­         
still cannot find words.

if you cut me open
you would hear music

(-x-)                                       
                    ­                                           up to the top of the world and
                                        will lift you                                                         let you see how softly
When I am capable, I                                                                ­                  the sunrise beckons
                                  

because life is sprawled out around
us like a sphere surpassing our
periphery, that is
                                we should spin in
                                circles holding each other
                                tight, laced fingers whispering until you and I
                                figure it out well enough to

land on the cool, sweet grass
(together after all)

I didn't want to wake
up this morning

(people who like the winter
most of all enjoy making their
own warmth)

be my summertime?

Christmas lights wove a
rainbow across the trees where
I sampled sound tonight

^

and you, in your far-off wonder, I
believe your mom was smart in allowing
us memories to refresh our smiles

^^

love, you connect my days, string
hope 'tween the branches that grow
overwhelmed with sensory
reflection at the most
inopportune times

^^^

I know you still, so
thoroughly glad we continue with
our lovely living story