Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume ...

Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in the trees,
unmentionables that peek from dancing lines ...

Love cannot be contained, like Southern nights:
the constellations’ dying mysteries,
the fireflies that hum to light, each tree’s
resplendent autumn cape, a genteel sight ...

Love also is as wild, as sprawling-sweet,
as decadent as the wet leaves at our feet.

"Love Has a Southern Flavor" has been published by The Lyric, Contemporary Sonnet, The Eclectic Muse, Better Than Starbucks, The Chained Muse, Setu (India), Victorian Violet Press and Trinacria

i think it burns
like ice on my bare flesh
bare bodies
covered in floral mesh
skin to skin
i want to let you in
god this euphoria is filling me up
only you can melt this frost over my eyes
only you can keep me warm at night
a taste of you
i've never wanted anything more
obsession has never been so decadent
just soft feelings are filling my head
warm like your mouth
sweet like you too

What of the young Donna
Reclining with book in hand
A sigh circling her lips
A glaze greeting her gaze
Her thoughts bored of days
Endless days
Depthless days
Where every voice and all actions
Are slowly stewed
In rich stock of routine
And people arrive, bowls in hand
Forming long, bending lines
Like the Depressions of old
Where defeat, distrust, damage
Linger and lay
Within the sleepless eyes of many

If my life was measured in coffee rings.
And coffee drips, spilling from the sides,
I’d live for eternity.

Your lips are like a work of art...
Soft, decadent, a lustful sin.

I never realized how sweet it is,
to be loved by you.

Don’t make me make you fall into desire.
Read these words and think of me,
and I will live in your mind,
forever.

With lofty airs and
folding chairs
we formed our grungy rule,
we grew from weeds and
broken swings
into a pungent cool,
Our reign is *****, decadent
more indulgent than your dreams
for we lost our morals
and our hope among
the broken things.