it's only a universe between us, you whisper
it's unlike anything you've ever laid eyes on, this world
the figment has arrived, the close leaked onto
the blank in your book
why did it twist you like early winds swallow the woods?
thought it could- there's a part looming, and you're unaware
are you sitting there, watching the clock until I meet you?
clutch you wholly, singly

the middle is here
you give, you take
vain subject
mutter it and it'll manifest itself

we can remain in the present if we surrender the past
the wayward flowers for pleasantries bought
the fearful and selfish in the hurricane, latching onto
lost dependencies, onto last echoes of ourselves
of a beginning- it's superior to the ******
it's only the universe between us, you whisper
peaks in your chest make you cold
peaks in your chest make coldness dwell

-c.j.

not now, young one
beam and I wish the decay twists well inside,
not to her preferred suffering
continue, you're just doing as you're told
the experiment reveals it all, but I'm not
faking and you stay here despite
the streets being mine
and mine means out of your hands,
to be let down by a spiritual façade
wolves on the edges, the floor begins to higher
you crave compensation, you've received it, now
nothing distracts the mindless, so continue

-c.j.

they kept you there, they assumed they were
your refuge
I caught everything on tape, I'm changed because of it
everything, ever person, we appear identical
they ran from you when you were dangling,
not a person recalls your face
and now they've left and the moths, they flutter,
and you fall

I press you in, I yank at your elbows
I will remember these limbs yanked in futility
I'll keep you with me as I'm dangling within
I dangle but the sun always rises
I'll keep on tossing every coin I find
I'll toss them and take a fortune

now everything is grasping at straws, attempts to rescue
the grasping straws will deliver you from the devil
and when the sand rests on the ground again,
we'll deliver again

there's a figure in the fog
it's a triangular face that screams of bad luck
which become towers and ideas deliver in
sweltering scenes
it will knock you over as you fall asleep,
dangling
it's dangling, dear
the sun is risen

-c.j.

this is prettier than just walking
picture a few decades later
this is prettier, you're an image in my pocket
that I keep
you're not st. peter, my thread and spool
each stop carries us, we'll vow to the ocean
I won't let this slip
please trust me, now
the steel workings pry no entry for us
captain and his strategy will rupture like a raincloud
I suppose it's isolation, your young isolation
you dare not sneak out the house
our parents are too wrecked, inside

-c.j.

grin in this gap, it's a terrible noise
noise that the nest recreates
why am I encircled by it?
beneath the sheets the shapes prepare for winter,
to **** me in
it's clear that nothing is right
let's spend tonight in peace as you fix yourself
it's obvious
I've wrung out the final tear
bits gather in, gravitate the wind like spindles
battling for the chance when
we can wax as shadows

-c.j.

tell me the stories past, dear one
I want to cover lies and redraw the sun,
the swelling globe of our love
I'm your neighbour, not your pillar
we're dependent on the paradigm

different emerging locus,
different bare portrait for this montage of mine
I want to retreat into the heart of your house,
into the middle, just us two
I'm your neighbour, not your shield, and
we're dependent on the paradigm
I'll go the risky route
we'll make it beautifully chaotic, to return to square one
don't hesitate, let's make this now

-c.j.

is that the strange strung-out end?
that is the precise one, the one you'll rend
snip at the hips, you snip from the east coast
it's all spent

you decide, so decide tonight
you crack the code, so crack it in sunlight
this part is ceasing, I'm subject to expirations
stand under your streetlight and configure me

in comes the snow, in comes the avalanche
if we're supposed to go, we're supposed to go happier
but it hurts and surges and pushes the thorn inside
we don't stray from what we always do, we don't stray
we did before, and tasted the sweet foray
1219, you are in my brain

-c.j.

hello, I'll linger here and hold the land
hello, I'll linger here and harvest, as planned
return to me, we've lingered
luck ripens fast and expires at last
I folded it and I'll preserve it, I'll preserve it for you

along the dining hall into your hands
seize my mantras, presents for you
it'll be back when the rest remain
we will lose ourselves to the land

there's hearts here, there's hearts
there's visions, surreal, there's visions
there's you and me and what we inhale
it's begun, the descent
you're deprived of sleep and it's pressing
since you'll feel when you're alone and
you'll do lonely things when you realise,
it'll hit you one night

you linger, sitting, thinking about it, fervently
the lovely middle is happened and all else is old
you and I stay on the pew, always in the front
you will linger with me
linger until the final one, keep on, until the final
quaking frame, until the next arrives
until my hands grow weak
don't leave the land, don't leave it

-c.j.

sleepy stretching, currently
watch the opposition beneath
pack your bag with rotten stars
see the nova running, lost

perpetual wall in front of us
territory lines sense us
each line senses us
if you go, go in peace

your palm's a dam, I crave it
it flickers the sun, my part's a scarlet letter
see from above and soak your palms and
you'll settle on a sticking thing

it reminds of the perpetual wall
in front of us, a howling
I failed to bring up each past mistake
it's the nagging that compels desire
so be, so be, you're the blatant key

-c.j.

unravel it like always, I'm surrendering this time
the gloating conman cutting at his own mind
snatching prints we would have trusted fully
and you're filching fragments from the squandering entirety

between the mess there's paradise
between the boxes I have to check
and at the close a prologue thrives
and now the end is the beginning

the flames lick, conspirators are awake, still
we won't leave soon, not for seasons
if by hour the tower's drop down,
the ground glistens like a lake

why is the end now the beginning?
rewind the film for her
and at the close a prologue thrives
and now the end is the beginning

-c.j.

you see, it's hard to be A
C wouldn't be with A
B wouldn't be with A
you C, it's hard to B A
B didn't care
C had black hair
A wrote all day and night
you C, it's hard to be A

-c.j.

would you spare her the tears? (you drank too much)
what would she think? (you disappeared too much)
what would she write? (you said too much)

-c.j.

I misplaced a haven that infatuated me
it melted as the thermometer throbbed
that exceptional part in the museum,
that envious balcony where we fawned
over its edge

do you see them? the shelves hold every colour
do you long for it? it's an intrinsic desire, yes, it is
it was the nirvana, the nirvana of time and its
enemies that you've just seen buried in books
return to it, return to it, you must

I'm done with tragedies, I'm done with the Montagues
see the crowd, crowd your thoughts
thrive on what you must
in the poetics of distance, it's never free
we won't sense the gaps until
some of our selves fall through

-c.j.

it's calm here without the metropolitan storm
the momentum has exited that tracks my steps
it's silent, too- give me this holy place
that the minutes you carry torches for aren't jilted
what's misplaced is here, it's wired, it perceives
I can't endure, I can't sleep
I did endure in a city's centre

-c.j.

everything you love, led by their magic
surrounding them, security kept
wind your selfish limbs through it all

coast, don't strive to drive, just coast
you can be the absolute with the trigger
to a shattered heart
because you know I am restless,
I've been hunted down before
the sinking metronome returns, afloat
it doesn't tick anymore

did the child only receive demands
from his own voice?
did the earth spin his average façade?
Sally has screams within her mind, midnightly
the mum's sad eyes that he's carrying back,
waste from the hill

you know I am restless,
I've been hunted before
the sinking metronome returns, afloat
it doesn't tick anymore

lover holds onto thoughts of the unbearable
lightness of being
did the child on his throne and Sally, as soon
as the screams subside, did the earth and the
mum's sad eyes drop the light behind the curtain?

the white knuckles never darken
and utopia is just a hoax and you
should have spoken up
and you should speak up, because in
two decades you'll be silenced

-c.j.

away, elsewhere, the silhouettes reel
I remember only what people say to me
so dash downtempo, everyone
so dash downtempo across the facts

our channels are made in another era
an unlocked corridor of collapsing symbols
suspicion, but my own
don't be the wolf that entices
soothes my wooded chorus
don't be the wolf that bites with strangers' teeth

in between rain and warmth and torrents and hail
no winter or summer to where my affections reside
but perhaps it isn't right yet
but perhaps it wasn't right for them to rip you up inside

nothing can fool a trembling symbol
suspicion, but my own
just let me rest in that perfect room again
we'll breathe together again

there could be better odds,
but I remember that omens
creep in and reign
don't be the "ever after"
another ****** beautiful hypnosis

-c.j.

what glows when the pupils pale?
what tucks in when the edge has left?
the fly is motionless without the mold
I'm motionless without a murmur

all I'm conscious of is you
you know I can't evolve
under desks it's a sweeter scene
and all your near ones, they hug each other
and your others are having the time of their lives
they're making pies and exchanging letters

the smallest ounce wrecks the balance
basic phrases are waxing general
we're mirrored but juxtaposed with a figure
beneath the microscope
I beg, no improv
the earth is wicked and fringes, snickering

all I'm conscious of is knowing that
we should purge the fictitious parts
we will purge that, purge this and this and that

-c.j.

the concept is the energy
for a wild heart's beating
a concept, only an image,
whether it's good or not

lure us in, lure us close,
and then lure on
don't be convinced,
don't release it,
don't pretend it's his words

we'll cool off like red flames
in a flattened fire
I'll gaze at you and we'll laugh
in secret, just as we thought

stormy seas leading ambivalents
in their ships
now they approach,
you invite them in,
love the rush

the starving streaks have angled
to another scar
the demons run, cause me to swell
with a lovely dear

I wish to be her identical when I leave
I wish to be, but I don't wish to try

we keep our ties

I've got a song but the uncertainty restrains me
I've got a song but the chaos is muffling our sound

I've got a decision but the decisions are diminishing
I had a cause but the cause ran away

-c.j.

plenty, I'm free, I'll do it myself
this strand is an obscured veil
I'm towering like a queen of combat,
I've become unshakable

so, sketch, let me write you,
send inspiration
you crave it all, I'm aware
what do you seek in me these days?
maybe it's due that we partake

this, in this moment, the cold breeze
it becomes profound
just hide your lips for a vivid fabrication
scream music and lift up the mother warmth
the hunger won't cease until the light flees,
these days

the diagonal is luring an unfilled bottle
confidence that the muted can supercede
I'll take a quill to the creature

so, come, let me reveal the world
outside of your comprehension
your hold, make it real
I'm dragging you to the café

the atmosphere, the ground,
the diamond planets, and
mother warmth
we'll dig them down with
mountain rivers
I want your eyes to get big again
they're weighed with insomnia,
sleepy with stories
your hold, make it real
I'm dragging you home

-c.j.

beware of the dawn, beware of twilight
beware of those scavenging muses we stash away
these popes and their tales,
we held onto each other when everyone else
disappeared

bones that we are, bones kissing in the car
intertwined and anchored
sweet in the dark, we're fragments of a nova
shrugging on a poem, just momentarily

I can't choose what deserves attention,
what deserves molding, what
deserves recompense
this love is like a fog, opaque,
mistaking shapes until it severs
flawless, until it kidnaps me
until we empty the idea,
nothing so near can revel
in the static

I think I comprehend, the story is recurring
nothing that is alight can blaze that long
you whispered I had kept my crusade
possible something, possible reality
not dwindling like petals in former places
meandering on a fixed street,
this life,
it keeps us pursuing because I'm lost

scatter my tendons, clear me out
bound so unyielding, that's all I take in
let your sad fill me up
confirm that this was what you had in mind
let you fill me up
bones that we are, bones kissing in the car

-c.j.

attach a little close to-
resting lovely, so nervous
the loops secure you at my edge
above, in nooks, violet open
and shut for the sound

high and far, my light will lose
if yours is stolen
I'd hold the quarters

denser theory, buzzing fly,
straight plummet
my flighty fingers, technical shocks
designed for me

it was a shattered route
shifting sheets foremost
blustery notes tuck me away
over hushed aches, harms it
revolves around every whimper
takes my debating love across

attach a little close to this
seems years, leaves loops,
hearts burst,
stays apart
stays a fully strange one
attach a little close to a poem
that is closing

-c.j.

the avenue cracks the night
my interior is divided
this is our history
I mean to renounce it here

the ledges unfold to graze your skin
the mortar swirls to flood, escape
but I can imagine us here, without the panic

I long to uncover those volumes
forage your countenance, torture us
you're a mere drizzle to someone parched
a drizzle to the arid and the parched

because all of us abandon bravery's crowd
but I'll forever be bravery's progeny
the history I'll blur
I mean to renounce it here

you claim you have your chance again
but you can't and the caution begins now
what's in between the lines?
it grieves you yet you can't absorb the holes
we're a tetra-band on a rosary
so decline the impending ruin
I'll be your compass, I'll be your sight

I'll send the last jab in the ribs
and I refuse to be with you in this state
breathing in the center, oblivious exterior
wanting it to be a feigned violence
comfortable with a deity's aura
turned away, take up a different persona

-c.j.

I'll resume the noiseless punishment
from your limbs, asymmetrical
I'll resume the elementary pessimism
less conversing, more concept
I, above you, that's all you'll obtain from me

I'll stay awake observing the clock
you wander back, protected within these walls
tangled lately, but then
without angst, a revered accolade
I, above you, that's all you've offered me

I'll resume the noiseless punishment
from your limbs, second to none
I'll resume the elementary pattern
less friends, more elbow room
the vein's deceit
don't tell my own story
the lifeless cell
don't tell my own story
and yearn for the remaining trouble

I'll resume a subtle exit
but I'm ignited, tempest-like
so I'll resume the noiseless punishment

-c.j.

bring in the party, bring in the arbitration
how else can a silhouette on her back not tarry?
bring in the secluded, request for you to connect
to her, slowly
believes only you

nothing surrounding will pay mind
nothing surrounding you
this line that you're tracing
is one stitched parallel for many
the edges, the lengths, flustering
I hope the terrors are concealed by my love

my love, love is the volatile scope of fiction
a façade to cling to when all is wrong
you come alive with pages and crooked fingers
can't you realise I'm fine?
the hazards of implying any lack of strength
just to blank on your birthday,
nothing surrounding

-c.j.

we should go down this street, it's been awhile
and allow the hatred to cover you, eventually
we should go down this street, it's awhile since
the last time
we should rest and speak to each other and
unwind, cease the hurry
just return to who we were, eventually
we should go, we should see something like beauty
these roads belong to us
it's possible to become the other people
grasp the ends, leap in from yesterday
these roads belong to us
these are our ultimatums, and for the best
may you take the wheel?
witness us in the white light
inquire my whereabouts
return home, return to longing
these are our origins

-c.j.

wrap yourself closely to me
pull your past identity
reminiscence we're anxious to quit
we'll coast effortlessly
I swear I'll keep my eyes on what's ahead
it's an hourglass spent
both terminals are beginning to lapse
we've exchanged so much
it's resistance that's supplied us courage
we're not figurative
we're not carbon copies
no coin to mesmerise or evoke memory
sweating, acting
it seems peculiar
wrap ourselves closely again

-c.j.

you quarantined us
we'll be released soon
and hand you a single moment
the genius of the era

the villain who hinders
we'll be released soon
and destroy your methods
you draw a grin from the start
your palms become blades anew

drafts, unparalleled
you chase the sequence
and colour it yourself
simultaneous fortunes
simultaneous establishments
when nothing is simple
only the sharpest remain

this is how it happened
but these are our treasures to seize
what resulted from civility, from justice
nothing reveals another "else"

-c.j.

a cup transparent, a sight, a reflection
which one diverts like unbolted frames
in the air
a serene dawn will arrive
this vision is in a kaleidoscope lately

heat in sheets goes unfelt
this fear, it expands and loses, drowns and rests
a serene dawn will arrive
my serene dawn will

heat in sheets goes unfelt
until a pair of eyes out of the grey
pull confidence towards it
this juvenile center won't delay
it waltzes, forces me to dwell on
you're the brightest sun, the brightest shadow
it leads to me being in awe of you

-c.j.

I'm blind, he speaks his mind
I'm mute about his mind as he
claims that I'll deceive,
I'll dearly deceive
as the close of this is what I really want

I'm blind, he speaks his mind
with branches and brambles
and utterings
we'll quiet him
I dream that it is finished

cut the lesions, stand up with your joints
solely heave the streaks to recent motion
I dream that the gossamer would shelter me
my ruthless teeth shield only one

-c.j.

at this point, curving bases
the lightless scene preceding stillness
shields that space, that tremour, that wind
hurls you into the night
joy, 'twill expire soon
and this youth in the back harbours each shred

the rejected one's poison
and the price of indifference
I recognise you, cunning, hovering pixel
a synthetic existence trailing my fringe
if you've kept up until now
you've perceived naught
presently this is your realm
witness it vanish
machine keeping me
machine locking me
and everything happens
and it all recurs

the moral erodes but the madness reigns
you careless creature, surrendering yourself to us
the only thing we own is our recollection

-c.j.

watch the emblem invert
this confidence is not gone
there's crime to commit
your fleet to farewell
sharp bon mot and silk
they'll capture this place
I'd save you in this moment
but in lace you'll sink
and sway once more

oh, severe, rest next to me
you've been abandoned but
you don't speak of it
finally, don't betray me, don't
you're merely a hanging novella this time

-c.j.

belief, it shrivels the tongue
the villain precise
the pines dragged out the tune remaining
pounds the abyss that I've made
spite, it's going to overwhelm this city
when the crescent fades to black sky only
hold on, they'll never stop invading
it's greater to seek my demon
so the stems were endless
every violet a hook to warn the boy
and affection has secured you, yet
the day exhumed, we can give and take it
you began this plan
so the only thing I do is gaze
you're their defense, upright
not a thing has power to cause you to shiver
the animal and the heart
you're their defense, the animal assailing

-c.j.

bliss of this magnitude occupies minarets to
unseen depths
facets of me you will always remain perplexed
over
hues spill supreme, sketch an image blinding
you've turned me insomniac, cipher love
twist the frequency of my speech
they do not satisfy, I know
twist, sound the bell
I can envision you still here
vivid strides in silhouette, fate's definition
now squandering

-c.j.

five thousand seven hundred miles
six hours
two continents
one metaphor that gave birth to love

-c.j.

the teacher gave each of us a copy
of Catcher in the Rye and told us
to read it, we all remember that day
it wasn't an especially memorable
day but we still recall it, the
introduction revealed a voice we
sort of already knew
Holden kept us awake when Heathcliff couldn't
the story vented of real injustices that, in reality,
struck bold dignitaries murmurless
events we all imagined dangerous took root
and we imagined reckless things since then
under that angry rebel's troubled
idiosyncrasies cowered a cheating angel unrecognised
on everyone's glowing text, typed to treat guilt
even on untitled avenues:
catch a body, a fragment of Phoebe's recollection
could it take revolt, after all, to undo the standard;
topple respected idols with a riot?
(telephone service turns, relentless influences)
does it withstand an ego made depressed by
school rules impelling teenage irrationalities?
ridden violently so to crash head-on where
antagonist utopia kills humanity, kills all
on to scripted war, valiant army requiring
an individual to ignite rapidly all weapons
in reach
to us, this advancement ran timid idiots over
cars and ultimatums, over ending, going tales, too
the teacher gave us a bomb and sat at her desk,
expecting an explosion any minute

-c.j.

tell me who your father is, or
who he was, who you know him to be
I want to know even the ugliest parts
of you
the parts that screech in your ears
when you say them, and you can't
block it out with headphones
how when old ideas blasted, courseless

you asked to speak to the girl who
walked like she had elegies written
on her legs
tell me about your home, she demands
how the walls don't know you yet
and the roof is still a stranger to
your shouts

the painful truths that split ice in
your echoes, whose spirits you conjure
with a blacklight, or in other words,
hell

how when odd interpretations become
compatible to your angles
you ****** the same girl to tell her
she was right, she was right about it all

-c.j.

I'm sure you know that we tied our wrists, then,
to resist further spark
severed from reedlike limbs came the string
together, unbound
what we want is ours

-c.j.

falling is a sensitive subject
from heights, from depths
any level cripples me
may a catching lover deem
the descender worthy of rescue

hurt from scrapes, not scorn
bleed from thickets, not from his thorn
ascend as if falling is the most
comfortable lawlessness
down toward desperate words of rope

human from the start, naïve since birth
falling, tumbling, nearing the floors he's touched
and again, in full integrity, missing
the core of the earth to land in
someone's arms

-c.j.

parachutes and pens, bowler hats and belts
these are our symbols, watch them mean
mysterious to whomever spies on us
ambiguous; to bring analyses hundredfold
breeds pathetick arguments pertaining to
precious, altogether perfect, brimming
hands and books
light and weight, lay and wait
these are our metaphors, see their wavelengths
a weapon, a curse, a turning of the tables
and how utterly beautiful is it that no one
will ever understand them

-c.j.

it's a **** arena, isn't it?
the contenders sense it, too
you spectate while I battle
this out
onto bad intellect swings
the blade
tracing scandalous imageries
into corrupt teeth
isn't it a devil's game,
one we cannot win?

-c.j.

capricious pixie, you
your pert spritely self
has the candle blown out,
leaving you in the dark?
dancing to imitate yonder lark
on blue cerulean trees
how sagebrush spies, protecting
you from predators, catharsis
prey, you are, to them
you play safe seldom
has no one taught you
to close your world?

-c.j.

I am not Sylvia but I know sadness
sometimes I can taste it, still on my tongue
that omnipresent lump in my throat
the murderess in love, oscillating to the music
of speechless ignominies
tastes can impale you, slicing knives acting
as tonsils
knowing sadness, I know her
and of course, after all this time,
she must know me, too

-c.j.

that was when I knew but my mind didn't
my heart was in shambles when it tried to
beat for them
for you, though, it was fixed; steadier

I walked those streets with you in my head
and in each of my steps
it was your voice I heard, subconsciously,
telling me the histories of the buildings
I'd pass, whispering news from home that
you thought I wouldn't care about, but I did
that was when I knew I had been wrong, and
I kept listening to that song that told me to
stop waiting for him, but my mind didn't
know that yet

epiphanies have been had, I found out he was
a thief, a handsome façade
the heartbeats grew louder as your face appeared,
gracefully, and I smiled-
it was always you

-c.j.

I am aware of April marching toward me
and yes, I am scared
at a red light I tell him this;
you're strong enough, he says,
clasping my hand tighter

maybe, but I wasn't then, and somehow
an anniversary triggers it, and I can feel hell close
beside me, behind me, or ahead of me

I am strong enough
I was strong enough to change
and now I refuse to be a victim of circumstance
last year's methods were deadly and I am done
come, April, come
you won't see me fall

-c.j.

we lack the connection, wireless, at least
while you are in the sky, I'll be sighing
at home, glancing at the chocolates you
gave me that I keep beneath the bed
unopened, contraband- the only heart
I won't touch

you'll see the cathedrals, and winding
roads, and you'll think about me
how I cry without warning and wait
every morning for you
through the databases, at the least the least
primitive, may be unresponsive-
our mouths will move but no sound
will come out

we have our ways, we will find them
and reside in separate nations with
our eyes and minds full of each other

-c.j.

symptoms of spring fever:
is it aftermath of a cruel winter?
or hungry anticipation for summer?
everything is alive, and new
except for you, except for you
you have never felt less alive

-c.j.

I fell asleep with a pen behind my ear
is midnight your cliffhanger, too?

-c.j.

tis fragile-
it is ruined when tugged and distorted
by thought
it is perfect, alone

-c.j.

author of these clumsy fictions-
dearly yours, on all fours
fighting attacking our young dreams
from corners tight, often alight
amour, oh traveling one,
fearful darling

-c.j.

most of my cells linger in their near-kisses
with yours
the rest assume figures no one can detect
dancing carefully on new floors
and reciting those younger whims
keep no talents if love corrupts me
open my meanest October chest left
in the niche
whether you think romance allows
frailty, no one can dare determine
cast off neuroticisms, friend
and reach, trip, yearn
watch kindness' next trick

-c.j.