You spat me out
Like stale gum
Left stuck on the sidewalk.

What’s worse?
I still would’ve been content
To be trampled by the sole of your shoe.

Time stops
when you
text.

Today marked the first time
I used a pipe cleaner

For its actual purpose 

And suddenly

A simple action

Turned momentous.

I found the furred wire

In an old box of crafts

My mother had saved
From elementary school projects.


As I prodded the pipe

With the cleaner that was only ever
Supposed to be used
To bend into bracelets,
I couldn’t help thinking of you.

I used to only find kisses 

In cartoon form:
Stickers attached
To the backs of coloring books
.

My greatest childhood love?
Flipping on a flashlight to
Devour my latest book
Well past my bedtime.

So clean,
So pure,
So bliss.

So scrubbing away resin
Feels akin to washing away sins
Because like Adam and like Eve
Somewhere along the line
I lost my innocence.

When I paint you against the canvas
Forgive my amateurish brush strokes
My eyes are dew from rolling mornings
So while you’re blurry and out of focus
My focus is consumed in capturing your fingertips
***** from digging into the fresh Earth
Your green thumb growing grubs
Overrunning manicured lawns
Gentle reminders that the land is free and wild and strong
That we don’t trample it like mighty giants
But instead it bears our burdens
That Atlas is just a myth because
Not even the most supernatural man
Would withstand the weight of the world
And the harsh truth is he’d busy himself on enslaving it.

*** & Coke secure,
We sat back and
Scanned the surroundings:
     Dingy room? Check.
     Dancing candles? Check.
     Dark humor? Check.
Elements all in place,
We were officially ready
To conduct our séance
Off a twenty-dollar Ouija Board
Hot off the presses from the
Local Toy ‘R Us.

As silly as it seems
We felt a tad closer to you
Especially when we asked:
“Why’d you have to leave so soon?”
And you simply signed back:
“Because applesauce, man. It just ******* exists.”
Inadvertently proving the profound:
There’s **** in heaven, too.

At best you’re a rusty melody
A lyric gone foggy and distant
But don’t fret my poor lovely
I’ll  tune you right back to existence —

We’ll take on the world one song at a time,
We’ll pour our unconventional love into our rhymes.

Champagne soaked apple pie
And socks tossed aside
I sank into the over-cushioned sofa
Watching the Day come to a calm end
Knowing the Night missed your excitement.

He knew exactly what to tell her
To kiss her fears away
But I’d like to remind her that
No matter how poetic or well-spoken
Words are feeble and hollow
Until action takes place.

Scoffing you wrote up
The fortune teller to be
82 percent ******* and
18 percent insane.

But clairvoyants exist -
They’re people who
Realize the future
By looking to the past.

Fortune tells time and time again
That the answers we seek
Have already been taught.

Mark, my best friend,
Gifted me cheap fine wine
For my 20th birthday
But didn’t think to bring a cork *****
So like any other underage college kid
We banged the bottle
Against desks
Against bed frames
Against arm chairs

Pop!

Success laid in stabbing the stopper
With an unassuming pen
But pressure had built up
And purple still stains my ceiling
Our accident ******* painting
Our unintentional Michelangelo memory
But created with unrivaled passion –
A combination of desperation and anticipation
A testament to the trials of truest friendship.