let whatever love comes your way heal you. it may not be how you want it or as much as you need. but even a little bit can be a salve. is honey. is healing. so take it. accept it graciously. let it settle in your heart and flow through your being. until all of you is touched by it. and you are better for it.

drowning

i can still taste your tongue,

an ocean warmed by the sun,

crashing lips that kiss the shore
over
and

over
in waves that knock the back of my knees

so that i fall forward and

am pulled out to sea.

your mouth tastes like drowning.

salty, wounded, and so sweet.



-3.23.14

seasons

we took root in the winter sun,

pretended we'd survive until autumn.

summer was a sweet dream of sweat-sticky backs and syrupy tongues.

today is the first day of spring.

last week was our ending.



-03.20.2014

The Nightingale and The Starling

I turned into a bird
so I could sing you my songs,
but when you sang back
I couldn't understand a thing.

You were a nightingale,

and I, a starling.

Ceremonials (ii)

You were all-consuming
and I chose to feed you,
a hunger I did not understand,
a fire I could not bend.

I filled my night hours
with smoke and coals,
fragments of your voice in my mouth,
every word deep in my chest,
every exhale a reluctant release.

I put my embers into a fountain pen
and wrote you love poems.

You should feel honored.
You had me spinning out on dreams.

But these pages have curled right up, my darling;
we've run all out of air.

There are ashes everywhere.

The Nightingale

A nightingale
alighted in my hand,
slipped through my ribs
and built a nest there.
I fed it honey and laughter;
he sang me to sleep and filled my dreams
with treetops and twilight skies.

Last night he brushed my cheek with a wingtip
when he took flight.
I held my hand there
as I bid him goodbye.



-03.15.14