I miss you,
I miss your good morning texts,
Your messages lighting up my phone,
The special ringtone I had for you,
Calling you mpenzi -
Because that’s what you are,
My darling.

I miss your voice,
Your laughter,
The warmth in your words.
I miss how we spoke of everything,
How we made each other feel alive.

I miss your kind heart, beautiful soul and spirit.
I miss your wild ambitions,
Your endless *** of kindness,
Your relentless singing of love ballads after your favourite drink,
And your desire to truly be a great person.

I miss Kivuli’s sweetest face,
The comfort you both brought me
Whenever I was lost in sadness.
I miss your smooth, dark skin,
Your handsome face,
Your gorgeous body in all its glory,
Your kindness and gentleness.
Your laughter.

I miss how natural we were together -
Effortlessly almost.
Perhaps that’s what went wrong,
Was it too easy, and is life not?

I miss the hope we shared,
The late-night conversations,
And the way your deep voice
Would echo through my heart.
What happens now?
I don’t know.
But I miss you with every fibre of my being.
I haven’t stopped loving you -
And I don’t know if I ever will.
Come back to me, mpenzi.
Come back to us.

Coperită-n ale apusului măiastre straie,
Sub veghea ochilor cerești, în noapte
Susurând prin sufletu-mi dorinței pâraie,
Buzele-i de sânge mă cheamă-n șoapte.

Lângă codrul cel bătrân, sosirea îi veghez,
Coborând pe raza lunii, amară fantasmă,
Căutând-o, pe cereasca boltă, navighez
Cu sufletul îmbibat de a codrului mireasmă.

Ai nopții chitariști la vals ne invită,
Pe ringul de smarald, pășim tăcut.
Luptă cu dorința, pierdută la ispită,
De mi-ai da, să fie aievea… Un sărut!

Dar, tu, nu vii, nu treci al meu hotar,
Pieptu-ți mereu cald, azi, făr-de suflet este.
Un îndrăgostit, în al codrului vechi altar,
Privind spre cer, la a noastră poveste.

doors & how they swing so far wide
like the gaping shadow
of a pair of lips waiting...

i wonder if you realized i felt the grace
of your arrow -- brushing so lovingly through
the flesh of my *****
& i couldn’t help but to smile

take it away from me, the flutter in my chest, the
residuals of your golden essence
sitting on the rim of modelos
& passenger seat of my monte carlo

when i watch the neutral tones of grainy film
seep into your oily features
i wish you would smile just a bit more

two lovers draped over this canvas
cast their passionate shadows over bedsheets,
pleasurable touches & a recipe for a sickly afterglow,
burning like the delicate backs of fireflies
bursting like a pearlescent bubble
chased by bitter aftertaste of longing

how i wish you knew
how much you made me feel
how my paints drip like honey
& form the lines that become you

when i breathe again the essence has vanished
like paint thinner on acrylic. honey replaced
with a spoonful of sugar
& i cross the street to meet you

suddenly the memory leaves no trace behind
& i can’t help but to trace the spot
where you once stood

this summer, i witnessed my first thunderstorm.
a flicker of flight or fight and a soft flutter upon the frames
on your skin, i share this moment with the sky.

drinking this can of coca-cola, i am reminded of you
only briefly, as brief as the bubbles fizzle to the
surface, and catch a glimpse of a life beyond their own

”do we ever catch a glimpse beyond what we know?”
like taking in the first smell
of freshly washed laundry. breathe it in with me.

i know it lasts as long as we know it. eating away
until it becomes a void in a carcass; i begin
missing a piece of myself in someone else.

if only you had told me what you’d been thinking,
what had been missing in yourself.
we are nowhere as close to what we miss in one another.

except when i see you again, the shadows in your eyes
are replaced by the sound of your heart, pounding with gasoline.
i watch you drift away in the sea of bodies, finger on the trigger.

yet i can’t take that away from you so my own greed
fills the place of my heart, reckoning without reason.
we held the world in our palms, infinite and true.

was it because of your fins,
much too brittle for this ocean,
became too soft for me to notice?

please;
let me tell you, dear friend,

i wish you
would have been
more selfish

We shared kisses like tools at a workshop.
There was camaraderie and kindness, but no love.
We held hands out of obligation.
Firmly grasping onto each other’s palms,
We feared that the other would suspect something.
With this thought passing through both of our minds,
We stayed together for months.
Pretending to care for each other,
Believing our lover loved us more,
Living a lie, and trying to believe it.

Moonlight dreaming
In the rose petals
A lovers serenade

Reynaldo Casison

Within the fountain
The diamond dreams
Of stars and lovers

Reynaldo Casison

Two crocuses
Have the whole garden
To themselves.

The mousetrap
Is snapped shut
And empty.

1 4 3,
A code, lovers lived by.
One that never came to me
Something I could never be.

8 letters, just 8! My darling!
I couldn't hate it more,
How inefficient must one be
To use 8 letters 1-4-3,

This enlightenment I desire,
Wouldn't suffice words so short,
I shall spend 8 novels and me, entire,
Just to moor my boat on your port.

And then the world could be,
You, me and 8 letters in 1-4-3