We kissed our fierce goodbyes.
I got on the troop plane and flew
to Viet Nam to **** commies and
keep our freedoms safe.
Jungle. Moist with poison life.
Snakes in tree limbs and frogs
with deadly skin. Not Kansas.
We wrote less and less. I knew
you had needs I couldn't touch
10,000 miles away. You wrote
a Dear, John but I was too tired
to give a **** 10,000 miles away.

I've been put upon all along
    for this broken heart song
    so keep your tears for later
    when you read my final letter.
    I still love you but I surrender
    to our fractured pretend splendor.
    I tried to live in ticks of time
    that bled like a watercolor crime.

Some similarly hideous beast
will offer you stardom for your
wound that never heals.
LA is full of predators who
lust for the young beauties
flocking there from small towns
to be discovered at lunch counters
but end up on director's couches.

I love you more than life itself!
You took my virginity with your
needle and launched me like a kite
upon a warm summer breeze.
I never want to leave you, but
my life has been stripped bare
by the vultures. It's just us now.
I hope to a god of sorts that I
never go to the corner where
you sell yourself short, after all
I gave everything for your sting.
I'll die if you won't let me go, Love.

Let us pretend that all is well and
life isn't drowning in a sea of wine.
Our passion is alive and hungry.
Years ago it never died on the vine.
We live in separate hearts.
We live in separate rooms.
We crave other spaces.
We crave other tombs.
If only we could fall in love
again like we did before.
We could forget the winter
and devour each other.

Poems hung out like laundry
  on the strings of my heart to
  dry in gentle summer breezes
  wave goodbye to all my lovers.
  I never wanted to leave but I
  knew that someday you'd **** me.

My home away from home.
My elbows on the bar lifting
a drink to my eager lips.
It's elixir like a first kiss.