my deepest, darkest secrets
bolted in a wooden trunk.
All my junk stored in the attic.
And he stood static like the cobwebs
hanging from the ceiling.

I gave him
my hairless trim body.
The ******* the half shell
spilling her sweet perfume.
In full bloom, spreading out like
eagle wings, as he held
all the strings.

I gave him
my poetry.
He ate it down like candy,
lollipops and gumdrops
toffee flavored brandy.

I gave him
my photograph
cut out in a locket.
He threw it in his pocket
and forgot it.
The colors bled out
in the wash.

I gave him
my pneuma.
He pounced on it
like a puma in the grass.
I was the air he'd come
to pass.

at the world through a pane of glass,
hunched in a chair watching time pass.
These days she's nothing to do,
except to sleep, swallow and chew.

Her legs are swollen/knees bow.
She cannot walk/has no place to go.
She flips through a woman's magazine,
or she's staring at the television screen.

She doesn't change into street clothes.
Doesn't wash her hair/paint her nails or toes.
Wears the same wrinkled cotton nightie she slept in.
Has arthritis in her hands and a double chin.

She lost husband; her kids have grown.
This is the only life she's known.
She looks out that window every day.
Folds her hands as if to pray.

as a crumbled tissue
after it's been blown in
snot up and thrown in
the ******* bin

Discarded
as ***** water
in the bath
running down the drain
leaving a black ring
around the whole **** thing

Discarded
as a ******
pulled by a string
not seen
flushed down the toilet
for a new one that is clean

Discarded
as a piece of paper
scribbled with doodles
tossed like wet noodles
into the garbage can
with scraps from the frying pan

Discarded
as a broken umbrella
after the rainstorm
bent inside/out
with the wires sticking out

when winter is over
the ground doesn't splinter
when the robin sings
and the lilacs bloom
as a warm breeze carries
their sweet perfume

Wake me
when I'm under
a canopy of hanging branches
colored in emerald green
swinging in a hammock
tied between two trees
reading a book
or taking naps
as squirrels scurrying
chasing for scraps

Wake me
when school is out
and the lake is filled
with men fishing for trout
and the beaches are crowded
with women, children and gulls
when the sky is winking periwinkle
as the afternoons lull

Wake me
when the grill is on
smoking hot
steaks medium-rare
shrimp simmering in the ***
and the beer is chilled
the grass is long
and the ice-cream truck
plays that same old song
as children run to catch
frozen treats
faces dripping in sweat
red as beets

in puckered cotton?
not to be forgotten.
in a strapless dress of periwinkle blues
wearing stiletto leather shoes.

Will you lay me out
perfumed in Chantilly Lace?
Rouge my lips and face?
Place an orange rose in my hand.
This is not what I had planned.

Will you lay me out
under the pearl moon and diamond stars?
Read all my latest memoirs?
Do not stand, bow your head and weep.
Don't you lose an ounce of sleep!

Will you lay me out
in a cherry wooden coffin?
Visit me often?
Tell me all your ***** jokes,
light up and have a smoke!

as the cornflower sheets
on my cherry four posted bed,
till I fitted him. Then he hugged me
tight around the edge.

He was flat
as a piece of carbon paper
that laid tacit on
my roll-top desk,
till I rolled him and
smoked him
like a cigarette.

He was flat
as the crepes
on my plate. So, I
stuffed him with strawberries
and coated him in cream
till he was sweet as cupcake.
Then I swallowed him down
with a chocolate milkshake.

He was flat
as my father's jokes,
unexpected and not invited,
but delighted me just the same.
So, I snapped him;
hung in a wooden frame.

like a ripe banana
smothered in strawberry and
vanilla ice cream. Swimming in
chocolate sauce. Buried headfirst
in the whipped cream. I was the cherry
he tossed.

He split
like a rip in my tight dungarees
into two halves.
In and out
like a breeze. Squeezing
my calves and bending my knees.

He split
me like a piece of firewood
with his axe. He was splintered
from his childhood.  I was too.

He split
like a fat lip
that's been punched
by a clenching fist.
Bleeding and swollen,
twisted as my colon.

He split
like a ballerina
in a swan song.
Like a crack in my ****
that a thong cannot cover.
He's a hotel lover.