Unhung

Full display

for you

now empty

unhung

You grew my heart room

and now after hours

it hears its own halls echoing

the gallery at night is quiet

lit by emergency lights

and the intermittent flash of a security camera

which saw how you 

what you 

 but not why you 

but steal my art anyway

make more art of its empty square

off-coloured 

its secret longing to be bourgeoise in the streets 

riding subway cars

getting its oils dirty

This is how you've emptied my heart.

You have liberated its paintings 

and i hear footsteps louder now.

Love Pill

We always want second chances and third chances

We count the great loves of our lives

like pills in a jar

I take you

To make me feel

better?

worse?

whatever the deal

but did you ever think

that the story isn't perfect inside the book?

Once Upon A Time

The End

and that's all we look?

as they stand around us

wondering what we took

Non Action Hero

A new epoch

Dismissing the Cereal Box army 

the legion 

allegedly 

defending my honor

my heart

Centuries of cohorts

bursting forth

their plastic spears

through cardboard

And their commander

a self-proclaimed action hero

cooler in manner than the rest

who threw fire

over his shoulder into the village

never looking back;

walked away

And I the Queen

the one who stays

the one who walked in ten minutes later
to mend it all.

Sublimity

This is not a contest to gauge or mark the depths of one's sublimity

I've never been that way

Needing to compete

Enlightenment as a conquest

A rush race to beat the one before

You have yours and I, mine

I don't define you

by how you're not me

Nor do I confine you to the company of my mind alone

Scatter, go!

take back with you what you will know

Bring back to share

Perhaps to build

to grow

A new sublime

born of time 

and the golden trumpeted age that was us;

in the same way you never liked to rush

let time patina our love

and in palladium ages

their ensuing strategies may be 

to hang the walls with vignettes of

you and me

but knowing what I know

they will only compare.

Bach

And why am I surprised?

Even Bach told me

they never see you till you're gone.

2 Tables & a Chair

2 Tables & a Chair

which to sit on

to look most cool

when you arrive?

How He Reads

How I love how he reads

me

into me

reads from my skin

just how I need to be touched

the rush 

he knows how I love

to be

losing myself but not lost

he keeps his more solidly safe

in a book

behind his eyes

words locked in the bones 

dancing around his heart

I read between his lines

between hellos and goodbyes

browsing his shelf

best seller

baby- you tell her

and this is not a library

but we were borrowed

I'll mark your page

for you to remember

so you might 

come back for it

tonight

how I love how he'll read this

Sweet Heart

He's lucky I build my walls with marshmallows

and not bricks.

Read

I wish I could read him

like he reads me.

Hopefully

I always look hopefully into the eyes of love

And hope I'm seen. 

I Watched

I watched

as the embers of the world cooled

I watched

so much lost

and still

my last thoughts were of you.

In A Few

You

You're gonna be good

in a few

Make someone happy

Feel like they should

Me?

Eh, who knows?

Already my heart glows

and the rest,

well, we've covered those

Bye baby

we'll see

whose somebody you'll be

Maybe you're for me

ever after

happily

Ghosts

Let's fall in Love

despite all of the glorious

ghosts of the past;

how I tried to hide them 

under sheets.

Walking Away

How far How long

can I watch him walk away

until he becomes

part of the landscape?

Character

It's not broken

It has character

And I'm recycling it

Not throwing it out.

Locked In

Locked in

Paused

Not in love?

Where am I?  I was promised it would complete me

but I am lost.

Is this how it's supposed to feel?

Double crossed.

To belong to someone else;

actually outlawed long ago

I told him yes

but probably meant no.

The Lesser

Ah, the artifice

even I can smell it

fractured face stone

in my Wadi el Hol

I didn't need that information

Passed on through 

without a soul.

Ah, he always chooses the lesser

Inner fear of endless growth

and I on this beanstalk

seeking giants

to crush

the roots of it

for us both. 

Still

I shed this tear

into the dirt

of this park

for you

Because I love you

as I loved you

Because I remember

Because it's the same

potential

emotions

content

But our context has changed

and my beautiful morning

and our fated farewell

reminds me

my pearl nights 

have ended

and I love you still

as I loved you

still life-

It is now in the museum of my heart.

Two Glasses

Pour two glasses into one

this hybrid feeling of completion

That's how I made you 

to be in me

to fulfill 

overspill

How does it feel to be the liquid in my glass;

the content of a soul?

How does it feel to have won this life

only to meet your master?

Careless Wind

If you lost

me to

the breeze, 

could you

forgive

yourself,

careless wind?

Knowing perhaps I loved you

and you blew it?

Shattered

The glass

my heart

Shattered

What's the difference?

Habeñera

Eros and Chaos

have more in common 

than at first 

we understand

 You were erotic 

in a chaotic rush

left you holding my hand

gave you my good

my light

you joined me in a perfect match

tied

love

bound

found but now good bye

sad bye sweet bye

together and controlled

which one of us from this old nest will fly?

and which will be left cold to freeze?

It seems the free bird always finds the breeze

Two Pieces

Two pieces of a broken heart

One light, one dark

One I will keep as mine

One I hope I'll leave behind

And try with wire, fire, and tape

To form this half to a full heart shape

Feed it with new love so it grows

And hope my new love never knows

so much was lost

but so it goes.  

Dirty

The dirt in your city
our city
is from a permanent floating
earlier time
I touch you in it, feel you in dust

Other cities
let them be clean
Sell that
Glimmer and immaculate slate
to make beautiful vacation memories
Snap shot, splash, suntan lines, service
Wipe clean with bleach
for the next

Our city is filthy beautiful
with fallen dreams
almost heroes
and the earth glory of industry fires and
the world's greatest romances
dust to dust.

THAT ONE NIGHT WITH YOU

WAS A SNAPSHOT OF YOUR SOUL

TAKEN THROUGH MY EYES

the Other gods

I know you're not asleep.

Neither am I.

This affair so wrong

where kisses must turn to steam

and I must lie

to myself

say it was only a dream

but the marks 

on my neck

and your swollen lips

and these hips

that rhythmically wound you

secretly thank

the other Gods;

the ones who might

celebrate with wine

that I found you.

Not Being In Love

There is a grand freedom
In saying 'I Love You'
and not hearing it in return.

Yes.
That initial cringe, that feeling
of needing to take it all back,
like pulling the magician's
rainbow scarf
back wards into the sleeve.
And yes...

there is nothing like the shared,
warm, animating, heart bloom
of two
in love
both evenly flowering true
risking nothing
but...

How free to say it
and mean it
and realize
there is no sin
in putting more love into the world
into someone's soul
and there is no loss to you
when you can see it as raining
onto dry soil
and realize
the loss is theirs.

Queens Make Princes Kings

Wanting 

Me

He waits

for me to clear gates.

He dare not even dream

of letting me find other mates

between then & now.

How Queens make Princes Kings

Even without diamond rings,

the freedom of not

having to show him things.

I write above his head

and before

I was writing in 

my Other's bed,

Equally, scarily matched

I waive for worship instead.

A Queen who knows her throne

must reign alone

for control's sake-

Oh my Red Golden King!

I hold my own heart

afraid in your hands

it might break

but

please know...

If I were free from the thoughts

that enlarge the fearful small of it,

I would have given you the kingdom

from free to shining me, all of it,

& bowed down the crown

just to hear the heavy fall of it.  

On

I have powered you on

work for me

demo yourself

show me what you can do

what you are made of

don't make me undo you

unscrew you

have to check your batteries;

what makes you tick

let me only turn you on

screw you

use you

as i see fit.  

Roamed

I want to take my time on you

Even my words

want to linger on the hills of your name

You have been roamed

and named

in ecstasy 

for passion's sake-

I chose you

and all along

you thought you

chose me.

Ready

Ready for real

wooden joints and painted smile

permanent expression,

perpetual style in ad finitum,

and yes cannot mean no

ever.

Yet all shades appear black here

Ready to feel

your warmth, your cold,

your love, your protection

from the harms

of this world

and its grabbing arms

Ready to kneel

instead of strongly always stand

and crawl with my knees as 

equals to hands

and cry real salt tears into the sand and dirt

Ready to steal 

the lesson from the hurt;

the happiness from the 

burial

of all loves past

Ready for us to truly last.

What I've savored slowly 

I'm giving up fast

and free

I'm ready for you love.

Be ready for me. 

Believing

These moments before truth

or proof thereof

are full of questioning

and excited doubt?

belief?

What relief to find

what I think I found

but

if love leaves me

heaven bound

on the ground

you will catch me

believing

still

in rainbows and stars.

Alive

And in feeling him enter me

I was again alive.

Enlivened,

Bodily whole.

Aware of my aching;

of what was not there before-

my other half.

The laughter borders the tears,

the joy in this special pain.

And completely covered in what

later would be defined

as love.

Paper Doll

It's hard to be your paper doll but on paper we're fine

It's hard to smile a paper smile when on paper you're mine

It's hard to love a paper doll such a fragile thing to do

And pretend with all our paper lies the doll is not...

It's hard to live a paper life but we do it so well

It's hard when papers glamourize our pretty little hell

It's hard to love a paper doll such a delicate coup

And pretend with all our paper lies the doll is not you.

Confidence

Confidence

a word shuffled around this week

but what does it mean?

It means celebrating yourself

self-actualizing your dreams

choosing your paths,

fantasies,

possibilities,

and knowing with all certainty

that you are the o.n.e.

they will never forget

and cannot do without;

knowing how much of your life bleeds into the life force of others.

Feeling your own pulse as a thrust in life's machine.

Important.

Blessed.

Cherished.

and Free.

Tales of True Love

Speak now

or forever hold two pieces-

one of you

one of me

separately.

But miss this Serendipitous Glue

and float forever

half one pair of glass shoe.

One prince,

Lonely town asleep,

Have me Hold me

and life we shall keep.

Pastel Days

you know it's summer here

always summer

endless as looped music

peaks without valleys

create new high flatlines

and i ride spikes

find caves

play my music in their greyish echoes

play dark notes about pastel days

and climb to precarious summits

to paint the wind with memory.

Yours...

PAVE

THE ROAD

WITH

BEAUTIFUL

STONES

Pitch

I would find you in pitch

Tied and bound

Two magnets found

As an owl finds its prey

And dark finds day

The things we do I will

Never deprive

I would find you in the corner of the moon

And expect you home for dinner soon

Moth to my flame

All shadow, no shame

in needing me to feel alive

After You

The red of blood

The red of wine

After you

I'll be fine.

A Truth

It is the mind that makes

the body-

Sojourned truth I learned well

and I have made up my mind to be bright

And now my body is streaming light

even if only you can tell.

With or Without You

With or Without You

I'll be in love

This was my final kiss

My final kiss off

My true self taking over

and letting me play me;

the role of a lifetime

finally earned

and finally learned.

I'm always going to be this special being,

Ready to love at a moment's call

whether it be you,

someone else

or

no one

at all

The light hits this mirror from inside the wall

there's only flight

when your'e not afraid to fall.

Music

Wistful

How can simplicity be so full

Thrown u

Across the floor

Can't remember a moment of passion

You were not there

Always more to learn

To listen

More deeply

Fall In love forever

Wrote u off

Haunted me

Like a melody from the god

of another star

With One Note

Knowing that I could

with one rich breath...and courage,

make a note

shimmery as the sunglazed sea

high as holiest heaven

and as beautiful as a tempest

to shake life;

stop life dead

in

its

tracks

remind you,

shock you into the innocence

of elemental beauty,

freeze you all

sonically breeze you

ironic.

one note,

trained and measured

worth all the wine in water-

I stand here;

No longer awaiting your permission.

Knowingly,

I take my footing,

Breathe...

(and)

Broken Gold Glass

Finding broken gold glass still

Feels like magic now

Memories

of the secret places I've kept my heart

which only he truly knows

Enchased upon my lungs a ruby script

and spun vermillion promises

carried upon every note

a name inscribing, curves around me cursively

his stamp stomping out old orange fires

forging new bluer infernos

My world shattered into golden glass

Beautiful and perfect the sound of this destruction

Diamond heart breaking apart into the rainbows that held it together

Streaming colors

Pure

Now free to find you

And my words;

My words flowed like lava

Melting you like snow beneath fire

Crawling hotly over the lovely unsaid terrain

Violet night broke open

Revealing new stars

to wish upon

clouds

cinders of smashed silver

and atoms of gold

rolled over

leaving

you

&

i

Grand Central

The city crawls with wheels; itself moves beneath you

Serpents two blocks long breathe people in

Sing their same song- A, E no I but try 3

And emerge, eyes shut, to the light of a night sun

to cool and sleep but keeps it secret

because she says she never sleeps

She found me there at the corner

Standing still on the moving streets of a breathing beast

Holding tight to shifting letters and lines

Numbers like vines

Swing me downtown to bring me up

To meet pigeon swagger keeping the beat

Rhythmically I listen for love in the glistening noise and

constancy of feet-

A needle in a 'Hey'stack

Small Sure True

A glint of pure you illumes a spire

A scortch of fire

And I'm inspired

To Flight

here beneath shadows buildings cast

And statues cast upon buildings

In shadows I cast my own light

And the marble lady just told me

That beauty is old yet ever new

So I throw glitter in the street

In celebration of you

Eyes

Yes we are wise

beyond our eyes

or what they can see

they believe what will be

and have no fear

of what is written

Me, I grasp you

inch by inch

take you in

entirely, you soak me up

feel me from the

sweetened core

Master of my Queendom

but your eyes

tell no lies

though your mind

veils your heart in

slowness

your eyes have rushed inside

now there's nowhere I can hide

not seeing you from within.

Singing Blue

Let me save you some time

Cover myself in the blues

and sing

Oh no baby

Oh yes you will learn

Learn how to play me

To play with me

because you hurt me with jazz

how could we not have words?

Oh no baby

Oh yes

I will teach you

Teach you to play

and no amount of jazz can save you now.

Walking Home

"Oh night of unending snow, please don't let me fall!" she thought as she made the familiarly long trek from her car parked way down the block to the warm assurance of her Cobalt Blue apartment door.

The magical slowness of crystal falling all about her, prismatically catching the street lamps, made her feel dreamy and restless at the same time. Her mind, the hare, raced over the evening's events- the wine, the opening, the library office, the letter she accidentally saw- all of it. Her body, the tortoise, slowly made deliberate and measured lace of the shimmer below.

This was a feeling she was very used to, having lived here all of her life, but for some reason it always felt unprepared; almost crazy. How can the body, so flexible and supple become a stiff stick figure; toes clenching invisible ground through shoes and eyes divining through the amassed white glitter a methodical path devoid of dreaded black ice? Couldn't she have stored up some of the humid heat from summer? Some of the steadiness of running spring mornings? How could this body with its heavy thoughts feel like it was learning to walk again?

Although...everything in her body did feel light and transcendent for the first time in a long time. Melted almost. His last touch still searing through her yellow sweater; surely her skin was singed beneath its fibers. She would have to check later.

What he said that night would stick with her for years. It would haunt her thoughts and push her onward.

One word...only one word. The simplest answer to her complex question.

"Yes"

Chance

if everything is as it was

in his smile

it was all worth it

for that small while

when i had that

coy black glance

and never more

At least I took my chance

on everything

as it was

in my core