To the friend of my friend
We've never met, you and I.
And now we never will.
I heard of you in passing, she adored you.
Oli this, Oli that.
You were so close and just as much a part of her as her liver, or her eyes.
Even to me, in her life, you were just a fact,
Like her hands, or her teeth.
Yet, I didn't know you!
So I think that I thought of you like that, in itself, is incredible.

I can only hope your passing was quick. For her it will be painful, and I cannot be there in the ways I would like.
Over nine years we've done nothing but grow apart, briefly passing in the night or In a hot summers day.
I hope she finds solace in the people around her. I hope they dry her tears when I cannot.

I hope if there is an afterlife, you are at peace.
You will be missed.

Sincerely
A friend of your friend.

gone,
yet you linger
like a hollow cavity
in my chest.
i feel you
wrapped tight
around my ribcage
blooming
with every breath,
the sweetest lilacs
wrapping tight
like your body on mine
on clementine nights.

I'm starting not to believe.
I know you like mind games and you play them well.

You say she does all this stuff to you but yet you let her treat everyone around you like they're her game. An you treat everyone around you like they're your game.

You make love look like a joke and not a good joke. You have insulted love with the way you treat your friends and family. You take them for granted like they're nothing even though they do so much for you when they can.

You feel insulted by your family all.the time but you insult your family consistently.  

When did your heart become so hard and cold like a coldest of continents? When did your mind get more messed up than mine?

We all need help, and have issues.

some people are willing to receive help and work through the issues that life has thrown their way in this world that is so small in many ways yet so big in other ways.

Once I had an undesirable roommate
I was in college at the time
I was assigned to a girl not so great
She did things I considered crimes

I thought if I don’t get some relief
I will lose what is left of my mind
My stay at this college will be brief
How can I leave my troubles behind

I walked down the hall of my dorm
Feeling very sad and forlorn
Then suddenly I had a brainstorm
That would heal all the hurt I had born

Quickly I slipped into another room
I met a girl I had long admired
Holding my breath, did I dare presume
She was working quietly and seemed inspired

I didn’t know if she knew who I was
If she would even listen to my request
I told her the problem that had caused
My world to be so greatly upset

She seemed not a bit surprised at all
For in a dorm rumors fly like the wind
She smiled at me and my southern drawl
Would you like to join me and move right in

Her words were like a balm to my soul
I quickly moved my possessions in before
My old roommate could return and stroll
In to make a drama scene that I abhor
That was my college freshman year
I remember many friends and good times
But the best decision I made was clear
Moving in with Jean Shuey was prime

She was smart and always a lady so fine
Five years older with some gray in her hair
I was an extrovert and spoke my mind
Together we made the ideal pair

All that year she gave me much pleasure
Studying and talking late into the night
I always thought of her as my treasure
Without her I would have been in a plight

Time has its way of rushing on
After college we lost contact
I saw her a few times over days gone
But I failed to call or keep track

Today I decided to contact her again
Soon I found her address and phone
I wondered if her would still be my friend
Or would rather just be left alone

We talked for hours of good times and bad
So much to catch up on after thirty years
We both had lost our dear mom and dad
But we said good-bye without any tears

We planned to email each other often
And meet at a restaurant for a meal
I hope we never again let years soften
Our love and admiration, time will not steal

You rose upon our wings of youth
And shone as if a morning star,
You dared to tred those ****** paths,
A guiding light to darker times.

You fell through fingers long untwined,
Sank beneath those waves of pain;
Yet always, still that man we loved,
Beheld, upheld upon this evening star.

TS Lefort 2020

I wanted someone new
One who would love my flaws
And still not appear weak
I was left lonely and sober


I wished for a lover
One who would wake me with roses
And probly catch a grenade for me
But I had my heart to mend


I needed a friend
With whom I could never pretend
Help me see reality from illusion
Then I found all three
My friend is my new lover

Diobimma

there is nothing quite like being with you ...

sitting cross-legged on your warm crumpled comforter in dim amber light
with hunched backs against the white stone wall,
silently working to piece each other together,
merging thoughts and shoulders,
falling into each other's gravity and orbiting like stars–
we couldn't figure out
how to get any closer ...

we lived in shoeboxes then,
in ***** laundry and ramen-flavored freedom,
the soundtrack in our background
shuffled steps and muffled laughter through thin walls,
pencil scratches and elevator dings,
wooden doors and heavy coats,
cars in the snow rushing by our open windows,
hot cocoa, creaking bedsprings, and
singing–

I have been listening for the music in the things here–
I have searched in comforters, in stone walls,
in laundry and ramen,
in slippers and open mouths and pencils and elevators and doors and coats and cars and snow and windows and chocolate and bedsprings and everyday I try to remember something else I can dissect:
some texture, some melody, some pattern, some rhythm
where you might exist too,
but your music
is nowhere else.

we live in big empty houses now,
in hardwood floors and toothpaste-flavored loneliness.
I can still hear our shoeboxes
and feel the pull of our gravity
somewhere
fading ...