Light with crawling arms as a reflection on a white wall.

A morning star like the ones on my ceiling at night.

Giving borrowed light to fight the monsters.

Imaginative child seeing a man with a knife instead of a clothes hanger, a T-Rex where the swings should be.

Afraid at night and quiet by day.

The most sensitive boy you’ll ever meet changing into a heartless ******* with no

memories

of

hugs

from

his

mother.

Monsters everywhere, it’s like he’s one of them.

Aggressive

sad

lonely

caveman.

What is the hardest part
                    Of being alone?
It's the quietness,
A stillness making
What ought have been a home-
a house.
It's filled with beds,
But those lover's nests
Are             Empty.
And the thought is
As occupying as a dream.
A dream you cannot feel
Because the loneliness is keeping you awake

With no one to hold down your fears
         And keep you safe.

An old man is sprawled
across my steps, in the night,
shouting for cigarettes,
crying out—as he does—
Lord, have mercy on a poor man’s soul.

**** or be killed.
That’s how it was
in North Vietnam.
He’d said that and pulled out London dry gin
to wash away only God knows what thought that got in--
I do not understand him
but I understand him
better than I used to.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst to do right.
Have you ever collapsed the bridge under which you slept?
Leapt from your bed when the earthquake hit
or lay awake in it when the kids came to school
with black eyes and suicide eyes?

Blessed are the poor in spirit
but the kingdom hasn’t come yet
and the children are too beautiful for their own good
and I am not good enough.

I am on Your steps, crying
Lord have mercy
on Your poor kingdom

William Shakespeare said "When I saw you I fell in love and you smiled because you knew," and this happens to us every morning.

I put my lips to your chest, so I know what your breath feels like.

So when I mason jar my lungs and tell you to take it somewhere I have never been, somewhere far, far away, and you open it up in Utah, I'll recognize the whisper of "I love you" under the 2000 miles it traveled back to me.

And I'll wish it was you, so I could hold you into my arms and sink you into my lungs.

"Love," I'll say, *"Keep the jar. You'll need it every time I look at you."

i chased you for so long
gave up all i had
was so hard to do
but without you i went mad

yes i felt invincible
once i made you mine
what was before a shadow
the sun now chose to shine

my skin began to burn
sweat dripped from the heat
oblivious to the sun
as the concrete burned my feet

stranded in the open
no willow here or there
refuge under my own shirt
an act of pure despair  

a man becomes a fool
when all that can be seen
is greener grass and then forgets
to bring his own sunscreen