They say to avoid epithets when referring to a person in writing
But you are all adjectives
All honey-eyed,
bright-smiled,
lithe-bodied,
deft-handed,
warm-freckl­ed,
soft-haired,
and most of all,
much-loved.

I’ll write you song with words you’ve never heard before,
But I promise it’s a love song if you just listen to the chords.
I’ll love you in a way entirely my own design;
I’m nothing if not yours, even if you’ll never quite
be mine.

I step into the shower.
If this was a book, the almost-too-hot water would be a metaphor, for the emotional warmth or passion or intimacy I’m missing.
Maybe it is a metaphor. Maybe it’s just cold outside.
Either way, the water sears my skin,
But god, at least I’m feeling something.

War.
The cycle is always the same.
Two parties claim that the other is to blame
and soldiers without names, who think they’ll gain fame,
are slain.
The reasons differ, but peace
is sure to be one.
Tell me, please,
how you can say you fight for peace,
when humans are falling to their knees
without cease,
and dying?
And all I can do is write a poem.
All I can do is leave traces of graphite on wood pulp.
A poem will not change the facts.
or make up for empathy we lack,
or bring the dead back.
We must make friends out of foes
to slow the blood flow
before all that we know is
War.

I am not afraid of Death
I am not afraid of death because we can never truly die
Our memories, our faces, our names, live on in the minds of those who love us and hate us alike
Even decay is a form of life, in bacteria and fungi and insects
Our rot will become the plants that feed our children or even another of our own lives
Life becomes death becomes life; in this, we are infinite
I am not afraid of death I am not afraid of death I am not afraid
Of life

When I say
that you are my Sun,
I don’t mean that you are
Luminous,
Brilliant,
Gilded,
Beautiful,
Bold,
Warm,
Or even the center of my universe.
I simply mean that
I cannot look at you
Without hurting