At a funky record store
We found on a corner
I sat down on the floor
& chatted up some foreigner

At dark
With cigarettes and warm beer
We stumbled to Alamo Park
& watched the lights disappear

At dawn
I woke up wrapped around you
You kissed me and yawned
& then it hit me, and I knew

I was your chamomile tea
You were more an earl grey
I preferred a glassy sea
But you loved afternoon decay

I was your peppermint
You were my flickering glint
Of a late night summer glimmer
Before the sun began to simmer

I was your stirred Pacific
You were my churning Atlantic
& Although it seemed romantic
We were as sunk as the Titanic

I was wild
& you preferred mild
But when I caught you stare
I suddenly didn’t care

So I knew when
You kissed me then
I couldn’t ever explain
Why I kissed you again

I could never understand
Why I grabbed your hand
& led you unplanned
Into a foreign land

You and me
Were never meant to be
You live inside the box
& I live to break the locks

Am I here?
Because I can’t see a reflection
In those distant blue spheres
Only an empty projection

I feel the enormity of space
Between your skin and mine
Yet I can hear your heart race
As hands choking, entertwine

Am I here?
Because I don’t see my shadow
It began to disappear
Such a long time ago

In silence & bone
We both understood
To love was to be alone
& so we parted for good

Coffee shop discussions
Your faith warms my heart
Theology of love and reprucussions
I’ve always felt spiritually apart

Yet you sew me back together
With the patterns of your theology
Smoothing flaws in my skin of leather
I drink up your faith in ideology

And even if I can’t believe in Him
I believe that love like that exists
The kind that bubbles over the brim
A constant stream that forever persists

On the coast
In a pickup truck
We made a toast
To unfortunate luck

You traced my hips
Whispering my name
With those chalked lips
A shiver ran up my frame

You held me there
Where land kisses sea
On a blue sphere
You fell for me

Racing through blood
Man made substances flood
Of expanded pupils, raised hairs
High heels tripping up the stairs

Burnt black fingertips
Love bitten, swollen lips
Cigarette littered floor
Empty morals learn to soar

Smoke hazed sight
An internal fight
To stand up straight
It’s all sealed by fate

There’s frost
Still capped on your nose
Your heat is lost
A battleground froze

Unfreeze your hold
On corrupt conventions
Lined with gold
Misguided intentions

Open your eyes
To spring’s fresh sky
Melt  icy lies
& Give love a try

I fell in love with you
the same way I fell out:
slowly and then all at once

My mind was lost at sea
they told me sadly.
But, I don’t mind-
All I felt was free

My sanity misplaced in a drawer
behind some creaky locked door
But, It’s alright-
I’m not such a bore anymore

My head popped off one day
It off and rolled away
But, I’m doin’ just fine-
Becomin’ easier to color the gray

My chest opened wide
without a shred of pride
When you left me
my sanity died.

My summer lover
The shapes we uncovered
After glasses of wine
Clutching my spine
With sweaty palms
A voice that calms
You laid me down
And let me drown
In a pool of lust
Quaking with each ******

The bites
From steamy nights
The pink hickies
From afternoon quickies
Oh, but the early morning kissing
Is what I’m still missing

I hate you
No, no
I love you
Slower, slower

I hate fast
Slow down the pace
This cannot last
This fall from grace

Augment your fingers
Across splintered hips
Your taste lingers
On sugary lips

Submerge
Into red, red wine
Surge
You’re the cork

Slower, slower
I want this to last
Slow,    s l o w
This can’t ever last

"Count to ten"
one, two, three, four
Someone closes a door
I'm surrounded by masked men

A gleaming silver knife
I hear my angel weeping
A mechanical cruel beeping
A sick, metallic life

Everything is so white
Am I dying?
&, if not, why is she crying?
She swallows, "Don't follow the light"

Can I lose
What I haven’t had?
To sing the blues
Before it goes bad?

Can I mourn for
Something I haven’t lost?
But for what might be in store
For fear it won’t ever last

In black and white
We are flawed with perfection
But in the tinted daylight
We could fall in any direction

9/11, 8:46 am
The first plane crashes
an explosion of black ashes
Smoke blooms- a flower
from floors 93-99, North Tower

9/11, 9:03 am
The second plane hit
Hell split
Fire licks the sky
men & woman try to fly

9/11, 5:00 pm
A flag is raised
above the rubble's blaze
Buildings may fall,
but the flag stands tall.

Won’t you slip into
the drapes of my collarbone
and nestle kissing my throat.
I’ll breathe a quiet moan
you’ll unbutton my cotton coat.

Close me inside the walls
that are dusty from lack of use
locked from adolescent abuse,
and dimmed inside we’ll retreat
to kiss where our eyes don’t meet.

Simple, right angles
Neat, no tangles
Safe, inside
Listen, law abide

Outside, undefined
Chaotic, unmined
Dangers, wide agape
Wild, the escape

She stopped eating until she was nothing but right angles and sharp edges. It was if she couldn’t understand the math of the world she lived in, so she sought the neat geometry of the curve of her hollowed hips, the bend of her wishbone elbow, and the measurements of her rag doll ankles.

A father quaffs spiked egg nogg.
& Somewhere in Prague,
a homeless man glows with real cheer
that comes with a gift of Christmas beer.

They’re standing on the edge
Where sea gives way to land
They’re dancing, toeing the ledge
Of the dark and the white sand

They might be touching
No, no they are holding
Even more so  c l u t c h i n g
Two shady figures molding

An old man alone in his car
Stares out at an empty night
Imagines two shadows off not too far
Dancing in the fading moonlight

I promise to stop loving you tomorrow
but for tonight let me put my head
on your shoulder

I promise to forget you tomorrow
but for tonight we can get high on
the velvet porch

I promise to stop loving you tomorrow
but tonight let’s pretend
it isn’t tomorrow

You can't give love
only to take it back
but I swallow words
like pills these days

and the side affects
have no warning label
and overdosing is
too often fatal

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I'm still a lil'
In love with you

I’m addicted
To lying with gentlemen
Breathing unrestricted
To surface every now and then

Second amendment rights
Cigarettes & car rides
Away from bright city lights
In the dark society confides

An early morning fire
Pass me a burning ****
Bring me all the higher
Remove societies’ yoke

Ba da bump
I woke up alone
In my own twilight zone
Sunken is depression’s claw
& into myself I withdraw
Ba da bump, bump
Inevitably my heart will pump
Listening to the trumpet
Trapped in this twisted routine
I need a lover’s vaccine
Ba da bump, bump, bump
He said his love was fleeting
At our first meeting
So quickly I forgot
Blinded by the love I sought
Ba da bump, bump, bump, bump
We fell into bed
Bodies as heavy as lead
Sipping love from my lips
& I close my eyes to eclipse…
Ba da bump**
I woke up alone

As it turns out
Two wrongs don’t make
A right- I doubt
You’ll ever understand that

That in the end
It wasn’t meant to be
You were better off a friend
& I free

That meeting halfway
was just too far...
but I thought we could pray
the distance away

She a ballerina
Spinning through air
In her icy arena
To land anywhere

He a winter’s sigh
Searching through trees
To capture her in sky
On his webbed breeze

Love a fickle disease
That rises like the tide
To pull back when it please
& Leave the sky too wide

Lately poetry has been
scraped off my consciousness
and smeared across the page
like a three year old
playing with watercolors
forcing shades together
that were never meant to be blended
in hopes of seeing some pattern
or understanding
in the blind expression

They clashed
with winter's twilight
On that gray wash day
too much a sight

You bought me flowers
in old Monterey
You brought me flowers
and I threw them away