People run and people hustle
They push and pull and tug and tussle
For what?

Lines extend around the block
Full of people set to go in hock
For what?

A crushing, living, breathing mass
Who won't subside to let one pass
For what?

Weather good or weather poor
They only want inside the store
For what?

A tale is told of victor's spoils
Of all their silly, shopping toils
For what?

Black Friday shoppers spending all
Filling every shopping mall
For what?

I cannot grasp their need to spend
Tell me when will madness end
For what?

I softly kiss
the back of your neck
because I know
you like it
as much as
I like to hear
the rustle of the sheets
as your mocha eyes
catch me in the dark.
So close that your
shallow breath tickles
my day old shave
and your nose brushes
my stubbled cheek.
My soft goodnight
tiptoes past your ear.
A faint smile and you
nudge me with your knee
or poke me with your elbow
before you turn away,
settling back into the arms
wrapping your chest.

I squeeze a little.
You squeeze back.

She’s falling in love with a boy named after a star.
I say, “How poetic.”
She says, “I’m not sure how to love a star.
I’ve never done this before.”

I don’t tell her about the star I spent all of last summer staring at.
The star that glowed so brilliantly
that I forgot about the pain in my neck
from gazing upwards for a whole season.
I forgot that I was in a land of meteor showers.
I convinced myself of a rearranged solar system.

I don’t tell the girl about to jump about the fall.
The Fall when I fell and fell and kept wondering when I would hit the ground.
The winter when I had nowhere else to go and my heart felt
like it was constantly hitting rock bottom and bouncing back up,
only to crash down again with greater force.
People who listen closely enough say they can still hear echoes
of my heart breaking every time I look up to the night sky.

Natalie, she’s always had her head in the clouds.
She swallows zodiac signs without any salt.
She feels safest on the outer edges of the Milky Way.
I don’t want her to think I am afraid of the sky.
I almost show her my scars-
Deep blue nebulae on the bottoms of my feet
from when I tried to run her out of me;
Black holes eclipsing missing memories
from when I tried to smoke her out of me;
Constellations of twisted veins in my hands
from when I tried to write her out of me.
It still isn’t quite working.

But I promise, I’m not afraid of the sky.
I’m just afraid of leaping
into an atmosphere with
too little oxygen or too much gravity.
Everything in moderation, I think to myself.
Stop searching for telescopes
that will kiss your eyelids.
They measure success
in how far away they can get.
Even some of the most intimate cosmic embraces
can start to feel like long-distance light-years
before you ever thought possible.

The best way to see a star
is to look right beside it
and let it soak into your peripheral vision.
Do not let your pupils become too attached to the darkness.

Finally, I sigh and tell her,
“I have no map of the galaxy.
I might have, at one point, been able to draw you one,
but I always leave too soon.
I still can’t sleep since realizing
that stars burn out long before
we ever see their light.”

Quiero escaparme de tí
ver cuanto sobrevivo sin tí
luchar y desistir,
ver el miedo a los ojos, y decirle que no cabe más aquí.

Esas palabras que me hirieron una y otra vez lanzarlas
al pasado y sombrear de colores mi piel.
Tus golpes a mi cuerpo los logré sanar,
pero tú caracter lo heredó mi personalidad,
no se puede cambiar lo que Dios hizo de tí,
pero yo sí puedo; si puedo escapar de tí.

Porque mis sentidos piensan y sienten lo que debo hacer,
y por eso escribo esto para decirte que no cabes más aquí.
Quiero escaparme, escaparme de tí.

street lamp flickers on--
our blush fills the night from
collarbone to lips