Don't speak harshly,
Your words will form swords in me

Touch my cheek; speak gently,
And they will form worlds in me

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

Papa passed away in June
By January the farm was gone
Somber soundtrack of a weekend
in Athens
Blowing through my brain
Blitzkrieg
Unannounced, Uninvited
Blazing bright blue
Like your pleading eyes
On your deathbed
Like the sky,
Above the farm
Over the tallest evergreens
Playing melodies of grief

Speaking over coffee
Shooting at the breeze
I smiled at her softly
And loved her more than me

Reflecting back on time with you
As difficult as it seems
It’s so hard, my love, I never knew
Anything as easy

I set down with settled fingers
A cup of clouded dreams
That tastes like fresh carnation
In simmered down caffeine

Tell me all your stories
Sing me songs to sleep
For a moment, I’ll taste the confidence
That you could love me more than me

I'm an athlete.
I can throw and catch,
and run in the sun-
all shiny and bright.
And you just sleep, sleep, sleep.

Look at me, mama.
I'm a writer.
I do poetry and stories,
all pretty and pink,
and all you do is,
sleep, sleep, sleep.

Look at me, mama.
I can dance.
I'm lonely,
I'll move to France,
meet a woman, and get married.
Look at the ants crawl through
the spilled red juice on
the grass, nature everywhere,
as you sleep, sleep, sleep. 

Look mama,
Look at me, mama!
I have children now,
all good and wise,
you're a grandma.
Why don't you wake up?

Please look at me, mama.
Open your eyes.
I'm lonely and afraid.
I'm old now, and cold,
and you still,
just
sleep, sleep, sleep...

She had that
octopus smile,
always reaching for
something.
I was her small
fish; her handmaid.
I lived in her nebulous
world for far too long.
Inky confusion...

There's a reason for
your treason, said the
old man to the shark,
but Hem forgot, a beast
is a beast, they do
beastly things.
We all have to eat.

I'm done being the
meal.
It's your Ocean,
I'm just trying to
swim in it.

You're an oyster,
and I want your
pearl,
but I won't drown
for it.