We’re pools you see
With bottoms too deep to swim

Lurking in the frigid, lightless depths
That time when you were eight drifts
Along with the lashes of daddy's belt
That send little bubbles to the surface

For some it is harder or easier
Exciting or boring
But complex always

And yet we treat everyone as a puddle
Looking at that one inch of surface water
With X-Ray glasses bought from an ad in the back of Boy’s Life

I have you all figured out
You’re one of those guys
Just like my father

Perhaps it’s when you graduate from ******* in public to ******* in public that you realize you have a drinking problem.

How you laugh the next morning and cry the next night.

Then come Friday you need a drink.

The Boredom has set in once again.

Deaf to the wind in the trees.

Blind to the light dancing through the curtains.

Only feeling the perpetual, insurmountable pull of gravity.

And the clock that will not tick fast enough.

I miss you all so much
Words with such passion, right?
If only you could feel what I feel
(But you do, don't you?)
Then you would know what it is to “miss”
(But you do, don't you?)
Then “so much” would actually mean something
Maybe if I used a rarer word
A word favored by artists and English teachers
Then the feeling would be adequately described
Right?
Correct?

My heart longs, but that does not do it
My heart cries, but that does not do it
My heart burns, but that does not do it
My heart explodes with every pain of desire it has ever held
Repeat with soul
And still, nothing
These words are meaningless before feeling

Why do we move around?
Why create these feelings?
Maybe if
I add some Santa Easter Bunny Jesus Lincoln desire-made belief?
That I will see you all again
And we will share our most intimate moments
Worthy of many exclamation points
!!!!!!!
Until the end of time?

Stay put and never leave
Put down roots in the soil and in hearts
Never go and always let them know
Just how much you care
Never let your ambition or desire outweigh your love
And Be Godammit, Be!

Does a human being have razorblade claws or gunmetal teeth
Does a human being have the grizzly bear hide
or the exotic suction cups?
Then what has kept it alive all these millions of years
What protects it from all predators
Even those it cannot see
Those it cannot physically defeat
What lets it defy Nature herself
None, but the mind
And the proper body to wield it
Will we soon get a peek under the dress?

So why didn’t my mother name me Kevin?
Because sometimes the middle name is really what you want to name your kid
But you think another is more pragmatic
Either because the middle is too wild
Or, in my mother’s case
It was more important to do honor to her recently dead husband
Than to pick the name she had always
Dreamed
Of naming a child

But that’s where I get stuck
Why is my first name his middle name?

Outspoken but not obnoxious
Kind but not weak
Friendly but not obsequious
Deep but grounded
Loving but discerning
Intelligent but not pretentious
Focused but with perspective

You smile with your heart, not your face
And I will always smile back
Giggling like a tickled baby

0
For haiku I prefer no rules
Other than a real text format free for all
And three lines
1
A soaking downpour washes the Earth
But the look in your eye
Still won’t come clean
2
Delicate cords of hair covers your eyes
But I still see their laughter
Sun hidden behind the horizon
3
You’re ready to go supernova
But fear
The black hole
4
Without being too spiritual
You are
Almost certainly God’s fault
5
You cut like a rose
Smell like a diamond
And giggle like a child
6
Addicted the dreamy sinking narcotic
You have
A blood grip on my soul
7
To they breaking point
I feel no pain
As you straddle me
8
The stars come out
As the sun rises and
You open your eyes
9
The doctor called it cancer
You laughed
And called it a challenge
10
You’re unlike so many ships sailing
Yet when a breeze blows
Your sails billow and carry me away