Like soap, your poetry cleanses my soul.
On paper, I'm filthy from your touch,
and your honey is sticky on my fingers.
But, your words and your laugh are a spring
that douses me in bubbles and gold.
I sip from your tears and sweat,
and youth revitalizes my skin and bones.
You are an oil that enriches
and cannot be rinsed away with water.
You are the dirt that gets under by fingernails
and houses the seeds of a hundred flowers.

on soft twilight mornings
when the world
still sleeps soundly
the blackbirds singing
their daily sermon
i stretch lazily
the crisp sheets a shroud
i feel the warmth
of the sweet summer sun
kissing my back
and i smile
knowing that you had once
done the same.

On the day that I met you, I knew,
Something, some thought, some feeling, bloomed,
Some thickening, welling honey, through,
Which glued, that golden glaze which gild,
My eyes, my heart, my feelings, still,
Which seven years would slowly spill,
And now our hands are covered.

And all days since, I've vowed to live,
My all, your happiness, all that is,
My gift to you, accumulative,
To scorn the world, undeserving of us,
To prove to you, that white-hot dove,
That I'm not moving, my lover, my love,
I want for you to stain me.

In the morning, awake with haste,
We both agree, ignore the taste,
Of us, our wine-filled mugs, placed,
Swill, replaced with water at three,
The thirsty, the woken, the golden beam,
The bronze-capped flower, headboard between,
A kiss, just ours, both bodies; clean.

He said hours go by in twos with you,
2 was not my favorite number before,
But it’s my favorite now,

you once said
i was your very life source
before leaving me behind
without a second thought
now i can't escape
these memories of you
and so i hope my love stains you
like spilled red wine
on fresh linen sheets
i hope my name burns your throat
clawing its way out
when you try to forget
i hope every stolen glance
every clandestine moment
haunts you
my ghost greeting you
each time you close your eyes
the feeling of how it felt
to have me
bright and alive and burning
before losing me
like dust in your hands
eats you alive.

Don't break my heart
'Cause I only have one
I've spent a long time keeping it,
mended it from what you've done

Now you, another person
Have it fragile as it is
Please don't break it again
'Cause I'm not sure I'll be able to fix it again this time
I'm not sure I'll find all the pieces
What a shame
I know, but this time, I'll hold it on

Forcefully, feed me this love.

No. No need to ask about my consent,
my mood,
whether I'm fine with tasting this reconnection,
whether I desire my suffering to be sweet,
salty, bitter, repulsive;
It is the love that no lover is fed into by choice.

So, ravage my core with your cruelty,
I am content; fleeing holds no allure;
Rip into my bone cage until rats seek refuge within;
until they are disheartened by rain seeping through;
Like was I.

The patient is not faulted for their ailment,
even if they induce it intentionally,
and even then, it is understandable;
For this love acts as both affliction and antidote.

It is a certain drowning, Tick Tock;
I repel rescue; no one need attempt it now;
In the days to come, no one shall be blamed for this choice.

Take me eastward until we reach the west;
There, the sun feels icy;
the breeze, refreshing;
Transport me far beyond the confines of yearning,
The confusion of longing;
Let me encounter your childhood, your aged self, and youth;
Let my wrinkles serve as your rollercoaster;
I'll bear your weight as you frolic;
And there you are; simply laughing.

Incinerate, burn, lose all our maps;
so thoughts of return dare not surface;
until regret looms, yet repentance remains elusive.

We're distanced;
and in this, lies a joy hidden from the eyes of owls;
Beyond the raucous cawing of crows;

Say that I snore;
then depart,
And leave me to harvest wheat from those hills.