This is where I will love you,
from the waves of your storms,
and the echoing wind from the east,
they are no anchorage,
but the way you sound—
it was close to home.

Because truth is darling,
your brokenness is the place
where I am going to stay—
forget the unburning cigars
you left on my lips—
it burnt me off to the
patches of your kiss,
the swirling black holes
you have tug on my chest—
all warm with the rainfall of
chrysanthemum petals.

This is where I will love you,
no sunrises or moonfall—
it does not entangle with
star-written poetry
you took halfway,
the late-night drive
that ends with
laying down on
your chest or
the subway walks
that we ended up
chasing the moon.

darling, this is where I will love you,
from the ends of your fall,
to the last bit of your
sunsets.

To shine

   she lay before us the night sky in
somnolent waves dusted with
her own chimerical astrology
studded and dimpled with
compressed carbon and
     time made material
sweeping her hand across it
like Asteria hanging her mobile
over the cradle of civilization
nodding gently to Zorya
brilliantly conjoined twins spanning
the Slavic night sky
   dotting our lives with
multi-faceted tears of joy
like champagne held immobile
bubbles suspended in gold
at unions and births and
fading scrapbooks with worn edges
as a pulsating joy vibrated
   trembled
meanwhile
shared
   like the wind chime hung near
     though not next to
the one disturbed by the breeze
   a breeze that bends the path of raindrops
glistening toward new summer meadows
to kiss blades of grass with
a dusting of diamonds and
pearls floating on the wind like dandelion fluff
seeking a relative weight
and a landing spot
   with color
to call home
     with clarity
to rest easy
   a cut above
and
to grow
  to bloom
    to shimmer
      to sparkle

to shine

Adam's ale lay still
She looked up one night at Asteria,
"Oh great one, you are surrounded by ***** friends,
But look at me, I have no one
And I stand here alone"
"Don't worry little one" said Asteria
Appearing from between the stars,
"You'll have visitors in a time
No one dares to open the hatch"
and disappeared leaving behind some fairy dust.

The leaves turned amber
and started to fall
And the snow came
to visit her dear friend Terre,
The mighty blue lost all its hope

All the green beauty was gone
And what was left was blankets of snow
The symbol of rebirth had withered away
And the calm blue with not an ounce of trust

Just then the snow crane cried
Searching for a place to spread its ivory feathers
It looked down at the beautiful sapphire
and landed there in the warmth of its sod

And the legend can be seen even today
When the scarlet fronds start to fall
The snow angel glides through the clouds
and comes to meet the dazzling cerulean

Origami flowers and paper cranes
cloak my desk and litter the floor,
and one more
for each day that you haven’t been mine.

But it’s fine, I’ve more paper.

So I’ll keep folding, and repeat
step one through step eight. But now
it’s getting late and I can hear you
around the corner.
So in order, I’ll rehearse step eight through
fourteen as a means to bridge
the rift at the ridge of my
mind.

I can’t afford to be alone,
adrift inside.

Because I fear if I weren’t folding this paper,
I might foolishly try to manipulate the
stars
in the deep purple sky. My nights spent
mapping a light dotted guide. Then it’s
inside reverse, crimp,
and crease, until it’s one
perfect piece of art.
I fold, in part, because I know
that without this sheet, I would aim,
in vain, to
crease time and space into pretty paper shapes
where I’d reside in the folds with you.

But I am no Asteria, and the stars
are not mine to hold.

So I continue to fold, and
restate step one through step eight
and I’ll wait for your resonance to
dissipate.

I overheard last week that you need a new hobby
and since you know it can't be me,
consider origami.

She asked, "Do you love me?"
As if she couldn't see the answer
Well, if there is a chance her questions cease to dance in that glorious head
If I could put her at ease, the very least I can do
Is just say the truth

"Of course I love you."

"Do you promise?" She asked

"I swear on my heart. To the moon and back."

She smiled that smile and said, "Farther than that?"
As if this thing could be measured by light years or parsecs
As if love was a treasure that we can only detect
When it falls to the Earth
Well, since birth, I feel like I've been waiting for you
And this feeling is new, so bear with me
And I'll try my best to describe, make these words come alive with the feelings
That they could never explain

Well, here's a good start:
My love for you is nebulous
Tremendously, it escapes from my chest to exist
As a cloud in my spaces
And all the light on Earth chases you throughout the day
Though I yet may never write a poem worthy of this
Just to kiss you has become my own miracle
Circumventing the spacetime around me
As unrelenting as the forces that maintain every boundary
In that literal sense

You are my pillars of creation
I wish that every sensation I've made you feel could show you this truth
You are my space station, you are the proof that there is a light somewhere
So don't you dare fizzle out, because you are beautiful
You are my Rosette, if Cassiopeia would just shut up and let
Her radiance shine, you would still be more divine
In the same footsteps as Perseus, I want you to be mine
But I can do only so much with spectroscopy and rhymes
Just know that I love you exponentially more than to Luna's craters and cracks
You are the knack that I think I have for writing, alighting my pages, your fingers track
The flight of my soul, and once it gets there and back
Andromeda herself can testify to that, don't take my word for it
But if you could ignore it or deny by the time I am done
If this poem is worthless
If dark energy won
It would all be
My fault

So halt...
Because I'm not Perseus, no hero, but to hold you in my arms
And become a part of your shimmering charms make that okay
I'm merely a man, even absolute zero could not understand
That's my life without you, no stars in the sky
Simply an elongated wait for the Universe to just die
But you
You're still here
So I'm still gonna try

My love for you is cosmic, no
It's not a trick, if it was that easy
I'd just say infinite
But what good is forever with no "happily"
And what use is the Earth if you're not here with me?
I'd just be this person with these celestial thoughts
Lost in the Oort Cloud, with this terrestrial rot
And you're a cluster of stars, don't you ever doubt
You're far more luminous than even Fomalhaut
More like "R136a1," which is ten million times brighter than our puny Sun
Somewhere out there in the Tarantula, which is another interesting name
For a nebula, unlike the star burning there, still not as brightly as you
Even scientists have trouble naming something so new
And you take me to places even Hubble can't see
So I hope you stay in this air bubble with me
You don't need to be Asteria
Atlas can't hold up my dome
But won't you be my Polaris?
Let me follow you home

Because you shine, oh, you shine
And these feet, they just roam

But you, you are my heart, my titaness
You are the light that gives meaning to darkness
Whatever god is there, I must surely be blessed
Because my love for you, it is
Fathomless...