seeing you is like the bittersweet taste of fruit that is not quite ripe.
the sound of your voice is like listening to a song i grew up with,
a cruel nostalgia that makes me think of a better time.

but touching you is like nothing else;
my hand on your arm, my fingers on your cheek.
i could breathe you in instead of oxygen,
live on the smoke that tangled with your breath,
wondering if i would ever get to taste
such sweet a breath as yours.

kissing you was nothing else and so much more.
even if you faded from my life,
i would still remember the salt on your tongue,
the words you whispered as you shifted closer,
canceling the space between us.
every day that passes
where even the words that touch our lips do not meet
is a day spent in the dark.

you see, foolishness is a lot like darkness,
and i was the biggest fool of all.
i waited.
i wondered.
i giggled and rolled my eyes, and i thought it was enough.
i was wrong, but there was still time.

i stood before that door, looking at the numbers,
wondering if you were sleeping behind their golden sheen.
my phone said 4 am but my mind said now or never.
i knocked.
three soft raps upon the door, a hundred beats away
from the pounding of my heart.
it sounds cliché, but the moment your lips said yes,
i would swallow that word
and i would never have to wait, never have to wonder.

seeing her was like plunging into a frozen lake in the dead of winter,
my tongue sluggish, my breath stolen by the cold.
her warm words burned as i backed away.

the room behind her was dark and i laughed because
whether it was you or i,
we were all fools in the end.

Can we just go back to that one time?
To a time when things were so much simpler.
Let's go back to that phase when you were mine.
When you and I were reckless and younger.
We were restless and hungry to break rules.
Pushing the limits was what we did best.
Looking back, we were really just two fools.
Fools in love, but fools nonetheless.
We both made mistakes, we both had our faults,
We both didn't do things completely right.
But we both stuck it out, went through it all.
Just couldn't beat the ticking clock of time.
     In the end, no matter how hard you try
     Your first love will haunt till the day you die.

Yes?


(sonnet #MMMMMMMXLVIII)


White gloves, a new dress lace and ruffles thence
Adorned, white stockings too, and that detail
Of patent leather Mary-janes to scale--
I was in grade-school, but for all intents
Felt grown-up cuz I'd bought those shoes, a sense
Was't? of erm, choosing 'non my wardobe hale
Proof being not yet a teen could yet avail
O, children of that feature was't? and hence?
Tis Easter Sunday 'gain, and not sae poor
At that cuz lo, it's April Fools now too.
So laugh at me since I kin still bestir
Vague memries of that childish grandeur's view
On life, safe in my parents' care, t'assure
You now that Easter's heathen, tis.  And you?

01Apr18a  (posted on allpoetry.com for their one-a-day thingy)

sails across rivers
calm and living like the Nile or the Amazon
rugged like the Colorado once was
The creaking metal vessel driven by steam
always moving at full clip against the current
churns a wake of dark silt behind it

I ask my captain permission
to disembark and he smiles
and gives me the wheel

250 gals and one old guy
Lusting after me and I know why.
I am a Congressman,
I am a Republican,
And they know what that means.
It means big money in my jeans.
Big money for partying hardy
And if the ****** are smarties
They will kiss a lot of fat ***
And never rebuff a single pass
Made at them, no matter how rudely.
They will see it as their womanly duty
To make me feel that I am great
And lick on my head of state
If so ordered, and quickly,
Even if it makes them sickly
Because I am a Congressman,
And also, I am a Republican.
As such, I am special and divine
So there is no societal line
That I should not ever cross
Because I am now the boss
And you people that voted for me
Are the biggest fools in history.