Unholy tangerine

Kisses under

Flickering streetlights

She's a goddess

Something ageless

The other one

Just as perfect

A sculpted aphrodite

You wonder

If their kisses

Are lightning

Their touches

Electric

Although

She certainly

Didn't seem

Electric

Saltwater tears

Trailing down

Her coconut and vanilla

Cheeks

there was one day he was dreaming

           perched on his ledge

           remembering his father, the panther

and then

he was

                                                           falling



he doesn't sleep there anymore



he chooses the sun

the way the light soaks into the linoleum

the way his darkness magnetizes

to draw the warmth in

he was stuck in a revolving door

and as it spun around and around and around

he could only catch glimpses of a life he could not escape to

callie

She was sunshine with a smirk.

She was a sunny day but you can see a hint of thunder in her sky.


kama

You are a pathological liar.

You spin stories like cotton candy.

But your deception is not as sweet as you believe it to be.


rita

If you could just, you know

(******* talk to me)

We would be so much better

why is your biome so far from mine?

we might as well be at opposite poles

our habitats are so apart

please let our continents combine.

you are my destination

you are my home

and i get sick away from you

tremors

continents brushing edges

i shake in your arms

the way your heart touches mine

starts an earthquake

in my bones

i used to put all my emotions away

they were stored in dusty boxes

packed in the attic.

how did you kick open the door?

blow off the sediment

show me what its like to feel

sunshine!

he breaks down through the clouds

and god

is he radiant



his smile could literally topple buildings

i am defenseless

he is the sun and i

stare directly at him

to hell with my retinas!

all i want is him

as he dropped

from the heavens

god cried



his son

gone



constellations crossed his skin

some may call it

freckles

sunspots

mary knew better



her son bore

the marks of heaven

on his skin



a roadmap

to wherein he must

return

Copper lidded sunsets

Dripping down the tangerine

Sun's last echos



Golden honey

Painted across

The darkening

Purple and grey bruise

Of the sky



Reflected

Against the lake

A double image

Inscribed into my retinas

you perplex me

moon boy

how did you see

sunlight

inside these

dusty bones

i've been told that blue is a sad color

but blue reminds me of you

your eyes

the way they squint in the light of my camera

your hair

ruffled

like downy feathers

the midnight blue sky

as i sneak into your neighborhood

hands shaking

waiting for you

Father son and holy ghost

Hold me tight and keep me close

Pray the lord my soul to take

Please don't let me wake



Christ imagery never came easy to me

Rhyming wasn't easy to see

In the backseat of my car

Away from home so far



My god

This feels like worship

speaking of birds

do you ever wonder

what they gossip about

perched on highway lines

do you ever wonder

if they mourn the egg

not hatched?

you invaded me

made a beehive under my ribs

and all it does it buzzbuzzbuzz

honey escapes

through my lips

and your buzz is worth

the sweet

underneath

the muddy

mellow surface

of the pond



a skull lies

jaw broken

shades of sage

tendrils

curled around



lime and

magenta

slender fish

dart around

empty eyes



what was

never a home

for a lonely

soul

makes an

abode

i guess

i always knew you weren't invincible

but when you looked at me with those

eyes (dark like night, glittering with adventure

and intelligence)

sometimes i forgot



and sometimes when i saw you

i'd wonder

if it was a front

but i never pressed too hard

because i'm not sure i wanted to find out



but like a crack in the wall

your defenses fall

and i see you all

and i am scared

no

terrified



once again (and again and again)

i miss the point

i look away

or never see in the first place

and i don't notice the suffering



i'm only let in

at the end

to see what i missed

and to see what i never could have changed

or would not have understood



and

i am sorry

She liked mermaids

but not

Ariel.

She liked the briny crash

of incoming waves

the green foam sea foam

bubbling into the sand.

She liked scaly tails

iridescent and barnacled,

the long finger-claws,

hair matted with sea-salt.

She liked the wild mermaid

belonging to the sea.

She liked the wandering mermaid,

because, like the mermaid,

she needed to be free.

My arteries are clogged with my own *******.

If my heart ever fails, just know I did it to myself!

When did my bones get so brittle?

I swear I break my own neck every day getting out of bed.

My skin is just bad paper mache.

It breaks open at the mention of sadness.

My blood makes a puddle and runs down the drain

flowing out of my brain pretending when I'm feeling is

Pain.

he remembers when he was a child and would

ride the carousel. every time it spun around, there

was his mom -

watching and waving and smiling.

it's like that, but darker.



he thought he was on a real horse. all stamping hooves,

taught muscles, flowing mane. but the creature he

finds himself astride is just plastic. there's a shine in

its eye, but it's just the gleam of polished artificiality.

the horse is hung on a pole and it's fitting because

he's been impaled too.



so they gallop their laps in a gentle cresting and

falling in time to the lullabies and every time they

pass by the streetlamp, he can see the sadness

waiting for him -

watching and waving and smiling

i read a book about

birds

with snapped wings and

broken necks



and it made me think of you



i think you love me like those boys do

the kind of love you would do anything for

well honey,

without thought,

know i would throw myself in front of a car

for you

when i said i saw galaxies in your eyes

i was not lying!!

i saw the future and

it was safe

when i said my love reached to the skies

i could not lie!!

just have faith



when you asked again and again if it was all lies

i cannot lie to you

you are my sky and my moon and the entirety

of outer space

you are everything i've ever wanted and the

majority of what i've lost

and i would not lie

slide your hands up the holes in my jeans

and fill them like you did my heart



honeycrisp kisses show me

what its like to be loved



hold me close

and make me feel safe



let your fingertips teach me

how to make you feel



as precious of a thing

that you treat me

you might think i'm ****** or too ambitious

but i'm determined to make the english language my *****

i want to write sonnets and hymns that make you sob

i want to control your heart with my scribblings

i want to make you wonder what language i know

because surely these lines couldn't be anything

but a foreign tongue

it's been a while since you were in my thoughts like this

every time i round a corner, there you are

a photograph that doesn't quite match a face

i wonder what you would think of this

i can't remember you enough to know

in fact, the only memory of you i have

is with that **** cat

can you come back?