You're a million separate puzzle pieces.
Each a little different.
Some are a little plain.
Some are exceedingly detailed.
Some have sharp edges.
And some are softly curved.
But all together,
I know,
it's an extraordinary,
beautiful,
and priceless
picture.
Worth an entire life time,
solving.
Actually...possibly even longer.

Every day I spend with you is a puzzle.
Dozens of pieces scattered around in a jumbled mess, but with you it all comes together and makes sense. The pictures we create together are unforgettable and will stay with me forever.

He said to me he had a wife and child
and one day he just grew tired,
left them he did, but couldn't say why.
On the road he met others like me and
around campfires we looked at the stars
and laughed at the towns we had seen.

And you know we always knew our freedom would end:
age would catch us, animals eat us, the cold ****** us.
George, that was his name, said he had a plan for it
but of course it wasn't sane, though we listened to it good.

Then one day on a high bridge I saw him go,
arms and legs spread wide as if in flight,
the splash so small I thought him right,
he had suffered enough to get the end right.


© 2016

In the summer we fished the lake
in the high country where the sky touches the land
and the water of the lake is black because of its depth
and cold because of the mountains
and the fish in it are big and fight hard
and taste wonderful when cooked over a campfire.
We slept under the stars then
and fell asleep naming the constellations,
and during the night the wolves came down to look at us.
We were not afraid of them because we were invincible
back then and the world bent to our strength.
In the morning we bathed in the lake and then fished again
and all day you could see the line zipping through the soft pure air
and the plug going through the water and the fish coming in to it
and the sound of them fighting us.
We didn’t talk then, just fought the fish
and listened to that world vanishing around us.


© 2016

As we grew

We grew apart

a perfect picture

abstract art

where we once were intertwined

our lives now were uncombined

With all my heart:                                
                          ­          x      x            x       x
                                 x                 x                  x
                                   x          I      Love       x
                                      x          You           x
                                          x        <3       x  
                                               x          x  
                                                  ­   x

I've made a shocking
Discovery.

None of us have
Chests.

And none of us
Ever did.

We all have green screens
Stretched over our hearts.

Stretched tight
Tight enough to suffocate.

Green screens that show us what
We want to see.

What we want each other
To be.

And it's easy to suffocate in the
Green screens they put on us.

But before you tear that fabric off
Keep one thing in mind.

You keep the editing program somewhere
Deep inside your mind.

And you're the one splicing the pictures
For everyone you meet.

And that's harder to uninstall than
What we put over our chests.