You still haunt my kitchen light,
Steam on the glass, I'm burnin’ rice,
Your laugh's still stuck in the cast iron pan,
Like the grip of your hands, like a half-baked plan.

We hiked through moss and grass divine,
Your boots on mine in the fumblin' climb,
You kissed like you knew you’d forget me twice,
So I bit your lip just to feel alive.

I know you want me,
But you’re busy playing ghost,
Pretendin’ you don’t miss
The things you miss the most.
I ain’t beggin’, I ain’t broke,
But baby, you can’t fake smoke.
You want me.
You just won’t let it show.

You fold your guilt like laundry sheets,
Hide my name in your Sunday heat,
You dream in moans you won’t confess,
Wake up in sweat, blame the mattress.

And me? I’m half a whiskey in,
Writing you songs you’ll never spin,
But I know you’d hum this in the dark,
Like your fingers traced my collarbone art.

I know you want me,
Though your silence plays it cool,
But I see your poker face
And raise it with the truth.
I ain’t chasing, I ain’t slow,
But darlin', heat don't lie in snow.
You want me.
You just can’t let it show.

You still cook alone with the lights down low,
Put on my playlist, let the hunger grow.
But pride is a canyon we both can’t cross,
So we hike around love, get each other lost.

I know you want me,
You just don’t know what to do,
With a heart that fits too well
And a body that remembers you.
I ain’t askin', I just know,
I’m still the ache you never outgrow.
You want me.
Even if you won’t let it show.

And I want you,
But I wish you'd let me know.

I am the campfire that never dies,
burning steady through storm and silence,
warm enough to draw others close,
fierce enough to hold my ground.
My heart is a wide river,
carving through canyons with time and patience.
It overflows,
it gives,
it pulls everything it touches into it's current.
I carry laughter like a lantern,
swinging through dark places,
making shadows dance along the walls.
In my work, I am both the tree and the tool,
rooted, rough, full of potential,
shaping the world with hands that know
how to measure, how to mend,
how to bring form from chaos.
Stubborn as an oldgrowth redwood.
I bend in the wind
but I do not break.
Not because I’m unyielding,
but because I believe in what I am.
Poetry is the breath I hold underwater,
the truth that floats to the surface
when the noise fades.
It speaks in silence,
like a deer in the woods
watching, listening, knowing.
I move through nature
like a memory,
hiking trails that remember my footsteps,
fishing in still waters that mirror the sky,
hunting not for conquest
but for closeness,
for something ancient I can’t quite name.
In the car, I am wind,
untamed, unfiltered,
singing stories I don’t even realize I carry
until they escape me.

And then,
there was you.

You, who didn’t just see the flame,
but sat beside it,
added kindling,
watched it dance with wonder.
You were the echo of my own laughter,
the reflection in calm water
that looked back at me and said,
"Keep going."
You knew the language of sawdust and silence,
spoke in patience,
in presence,
in quiet belief.
With you, I wasn’t just whole,
I was seen.
Encouraged to grow without pruning.
Loved not in spite of the wild in me,
but because of it.
And then,
just as quietly as you came,
you were gone.
Not in anger, not in noise,
but like the sun slipping behind a mountain.
Suddenly,
the fire felt colder.
The woods, more still.
The echo, unanswered.
I am still the builder,
the helper,
the flame.
But now I carry your absence
like a second heartbeat,
silent,
constant,
felt in everything I create.
You are not here,
but you are not gone.
You live in the parts of me
you once believed in.
In the steady hands,
in the open heart,
in the trail I still walk alone
but never lonely.
Even in the silence,
I am still becoming.
And a part of you
is becoming with me.

Longing for a life we never shared,
A day or night spent in simple care,
Cooking breakfast, making plans,
Holding each other’s tender hands.

Stealing kisses, going on walks,
Loving each other amidst the rocks,
Hiking, laughing, total bliss,
That's the life that I dearly miss.

I saw the boys tonight.
I saw a pretty boy,
But the bottle in my hand felt heavier
Than any heart I ever held.

You held me back,
My true love,
A fleeting ghost,
Now just a name in my past.

But I held my brothers,
And they held me too.
True love ain't always
A darling on my arm.

Sometimes, it’s the warmth shared
In a room full of noise and laughter,
In the stillness between the shots,
Where they listen, and I pour out
Every word of how we done each other wrong.

Despite all I've done,
Despite the fool I made of myself,
They still love me.
No judgment. No questions.

No matter what happens,
No matter what I lose,
I will have my friends.
They’re my true rocks,
My true lovers.

And in the end,
Maybe that’s the only love
That really lasts.

But you,
You are still a part of me,
A thread I can’t quite pull loose.
I don’t know what we’ll be,
But I’m learning to be okay with that.
If the future brings us back together,
It will be when we’ve both grown
Into something worth holding.

I have hurt you, this much is true.
I made you feel each shade of blue,
Midnight, lapis, turquoise, navy,
It breaks my heart I failed you, baby.

The one I swore I’d always shield,
Now lies alone in pain I sealed.
The grass is green, the skies still bright,
But in my chest, a frost takes flight.

To know the ache that haunts your days
Turns all my pride to ash and haze.
It folds me down, it brings me low,
A kneeling soul with nowhere to go.

In the dirt,
The pain,
The hurt,
I’ll rise again, if you’ll allow.
I won’t give up, not then, not now.
I’ll stitch the breaks, I’ll bear the strain,
And never rest
‘till we mend this pain.

Tiny hands reaching for mine,
Tears staining my shirt,
64 colors of the rainbow, spilled dreams on paper,
Steady breathing while sleeping,
Kicking feet under bedtime blankets,
Big eyes full of why and wonder,
A bashful smile I’d give anything to protect.
My sweetest girl, my Moonbeam.

Dark eyes,
Dark hair,
Lace like shadows, skin laid bare.
Pale as moonlight on the snow,
Lips that beckon, pull, then go.
Fingernails trace a burning line,
Pain and pleasure intertwine.
Your breath is thunder in my ear,
A whisper deep, too close to fear.
A glance, a sway, your wicked art,
You steal my breath, then take my heart.
So come, you devil dressed in silk,
I'll drown for one more taste of milk.