i am the cigarette
you forbear yourself from taking
every daybreaking morning
you make it distasteful and unpleasant
when you’ve had a little too much
too deep of a drag
you **** me slowly
corrupting my lungs
disfiguring my heart
it's the sun i gaze at
the start of every day
swearing i'll never taste your
skoal lips again
but i breathe in your dissolution
becoming its demise
you’ll make better mistakes tomorrow
this much i know is true
though i take you in, again today
now it's clear to me
i'll always be your ashtray

Lifting
Sweet summer morning
Silent before birds singing
Welcome sunlight rising
Slipping
Over windowpanes spilling
With the anticipation of daybreaking

I am listening
To your steady breathing
Softly snoring
Perhaps you're dreaming
Thoughts skipping
like stones dipping
Under cool water trickling
Toes skimming
Wavelets tickling
All your hopes surfacing
Love is believing
In you, knowing
Forever is in the learning
Two becoming
One destiny ascending
You'll find me whispering
soft secrets warm with meaning
between us nothing
more than this embracing
Sharing
This blessing
Of living
TLB 061208
From the vault of lost poems