You woke me in the thin dawn.
Like a riot of rain in a bleached dry summer.

small green shreds of shrub sprang from my heart
as tumbling birdsong might litter the long pale sky.

your voice came drifting through the shallow line
And I let the sound seep like a soft assault on my senses.

I hear the words and picture your lips
Folding around the consonants like a dance.

I hear your breath carry the words and taste the phrases
That linger on your tongue as if to  speak them in a  kiss

These words that spin this cloth of gold in whispered utterings
This silken tease with a wild sprinkle of kisses and anatomy.

And would my words soften your eye and entice your body
With fevered adventures seeking to be sated with a touch?

Could you taste the blessings erupting from my tongue?
Would you ache inside far beneath the longings of the flesh?

It seems that every cell is sighing a simpering listless want
to be captured by the haunting breath of a lover’s call.

I like the way
you say care
and laugh at my jokes
and stroke my hair

You touch my body
call me your amor
and tell me I'm pretty
when I answer the door

But then.

Your phone starts beeping
I'm no longer yours
Your hands wrapped around it
Yours eyes on the floor

Transfixed by its beauty
It's body you touch
You laugh and you answer
You smile far too much

It sits on the table
Between you and me
A small metal barrier,
which past you can't see

When it goes off again
and you reach for that phone
You let go of my hand
Absorbed on your own

I get up, I leave
I'm not second best
To texting and cheating, and lying and tweeting
You inconsiderate idiot, your life's a mess

repetition remains constant
despite it's continuous efforts to be reminded of
over and over, birds chirp in the morning sun
over and over, a vinyl spins on the player
over and over, the world revolves on
while you sat on the other side of the phone
your chest rising with a breath
we exchanged a verbal i love you

and i still can't tell who enjoyed it more
when you whispered longingly
"say it again"

and i repeated it
and i will
over and over

Putting the receiver
to the cupped side
of my leaning face,
I'll listen to an old,
dead phone, a husk
with a sound echoing
inside like a seashell:

I tune into the static
as if they were waves
sweeping in and out
of my eardrum, hear
the whisper of voices
asking the operator
to pass on last sighs.

ringing ringing ringing
the phone off the hook
hoping hoping hoping
he’ll give back what he took

what he took is my heart
ran away with it
so I continue calling
it hurts, I’ll admit

when he doesn’t answer
and I hear that blessed beep
always in my head
even at night, counting sheep

the ringing never stops
for the phone is never picked up
and I continue to swallow
pills down, with water from my cup

they make me feel content
sometimes for just a moment
to help my bleeding heart
they’re just another component

I hear the ringing in my head
day and night it never stops
similar to the screaming sirens
heard when circled by the cops

ringing ringing ringing
making my ears bleed
the ring replaced by his voice
that is all I need

the sound in my crazy mind
the ringing of his phone
will he ever pick up his end,
or am I left alone?

Semi-permeable
translucent vibes;
rhythm through
a château door
into neon nights,
and lanterns like
red-eye photos
look down on us.
They look down
on me, and they
see me shaking
the vibes out on
cement cobble-
blocks. I got the
cancer / excess
disease, we say
I'm the new-old
where the auto-
focus is good
but around us
is gaussian blur
forgotten future.

I stared at my phone all day today
You know I'm hurt; You said you'd call

But now I know that if you do
You're calling for you

There is a fear that beckons heavy shivers,
Summons enveloping shutters,
Brings cold cringes and endless, eternal tears
Constrains me in the Stygian night
Convulses my chest without the pinpoint ray of light
Physically it cannot harm me,
Just detain in cold dark
Though attacking the innocent, malicious—and holy
Never has it fossilized anyone such as I

To be tossed without trying,
To fail without attempting,
To submit without fighting,
To die without living—
My gravest, deadliest, most harrowing fear
Is that I die without any acts at all.
Without friends, hope, or even soul
Just debilitating terror...