This guy walked into work today.
He smelled exactly like you.
Suddenly, I felt as fake as the strawberry-banana flavoring
In the frozen yogurt sample I was trying to give him.
He said, “thank you,” and walked away, just like you did.
“Thank you for the years, for the taste of what I could have had.”
You don’t like it? Want to sample something else?
Maybe then you can find who you’re looking for.
He smiled and walked away.
I knew I would never see him again.
He probably would never think of me,
And if he did,
it would be to wonder why that girl at the frozen yogurt shop
stood a little
too
close.

The flicker of fabric among our intertwined bodies.
How could something so faultless
Like the missing key, snuggly fitting my chest
Possibly be wrong?

Please hold me closer one last time.
Let me smell your ebbing love
That makes every hair on my body reach on end.

Just one last time, run your fingers through my hair
Like claws catching me again, and again.
Tell me to come nearer, and wrap your mind around me.

Don’t forget these extensions of us.

Before I know it, we will return to our posts—
Averting our eyes as we watch the world dance
And we struggle just to hold ourselves.

Please whisper a little louder.
I cannot understand you.
What is your category?
Are you red or blue? Or yellow with purple spots?
Do you glow in the dark?
Do you not have a shape?
Are you smooth? Or perhaps a little wrinkled around the edges?
Are you strong enough to hold us both?
Or shall I expect to catch myself when you let go?

Love me as the waves
Warm the iceberg’s icy frame
And break it into a million shards of
Adoration.

How simple it is to melt.

Sail with me to the Bering
And fight the urge to sail
Where the winds blow your
Intentions.

We all look so little under water.

Imagine what could be
Instead of riding those waves
Because I will sink under the melting
Iceberg.  

You love me best when I refuse.

Their noses sniff the shadows, at dusk
The leaves crumble beneath them
Leaving maps of the past
Forgotten until morning.

I can hear them.
They are only a single nightmare away.
The ivory hangs, but their teeth can taste
The faint
Traces
Of you.

I can never run far enough, fast enough
Because no matter how hard I try to forget,
Their noses appear from under the rug.

What creates a God?
Moments of Desperation
Or a nice folktale

She told you not to fall in love.
She warned you it was a mistake.
You felt her feathers and polished her cage.
Watched her fall
fall
fall into the dusty seed.
Day after day you watched yourself age
And wondered why she wouldn’t sing.
You counted your breaths and the beatings of your wings.
You opened her cage and stared into her eyes.
Why would you do that? She asked.
I warned you.