Your hyper-star gaze
Visceral in my throat punch
Smile cocked like a gun
Checking my tires
Popped them like a mail gun
Tell me wicked little secrets
Titillate me with your devilish desires
Wake me stupid with your dirty charms
Til I sleep in nevermore
Choke me lurid with your tailspin
Wake me stupid from a daydream
Take me weakly with your left hand
Lullaby me nevermore
“No reason to lie when you can shock them with the truth. It’s more interesting anyway,” you said.
Lentils, cooked or not, are still lentils. They just smell different. I squeezed them tightly in palm of my hand.
“Anthony, why’d you give me cooked lentils? That’s so weird. Why are you so weird?” He always loved lentils. The red kind, not the green.
“Anthony. Darling. Let’s walk up this hill and catch the last sunset together. It’ll be worth it. I’ll buy you a home by the sea, just like you wanted.”
You asked me why.
“Because that’s what people do when they love each other, Anthony. That’s what we do.”
For the unforgettable – Ecuadorian flute bearing – MJ.
-mh-
I’ll take any excuse to love you
So explain to me that the sky isn’t blue
That this pain I’m feeling isn’t real
Tell me that people don’t really have two hands Tell me we’ll live forever
even though I know someday we all have to go
I’ll take any excuse to love you
Any excuse to believe that this might somehow work Tell me that when you paused
when I asked if you thought we’d be together always
That you really meant yes
so many words i wanted to say
untouched spaces, fragments, mind
untouched heart caverns, rivers
shattered, blind
and where is the hard,
where is it when all i see is water, ruins, drown
your softness cuts into my chest
empty cave, gravel grinding, crush
dark and where, where is the hard
where is the hard when the very place
where i once felt safe now scares me to death
dark corners, mirrors, walls and walls and walls
pain, no love to be found.
i see you in smoke rafters the beams, the cigarette butts falling between the grates
i see you in the stillness of candles, the slow burn, the flickering of desire
i see you in music and every time i pick up my dusty guitar the ashes fall off and you linger in the shine
i see you standing there.
i see our breakdown, i hear you say “you just told me you didn’t love me” i hear the break in your voice
i feel it die in my chest
you sit hunched over in that familiar position with your boots on, staring at the floor
i see flowers i see ashes i see the light that once was, the sun how it shone when i heard your voice
i see you in street corners. alleyways. the fleeting glance of a stranger rushing by
i see gray. the dull pain, the end.
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
– Elizabeth Kubler Ros
I read a story written by someone about her husband’s struggle with cancer. Her story touched me so much I decided to write a poem inspired by her experience. Here it is.
Cooking For One
There is nothing worse than staring at your empty plate
one sad egg staring back at you
you used to joke with me about what would happen if you died.
laughing, I’d tell you stories about how I would survive on a diet of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
I take my fork and push the egg to the right side of my plate.
How I would love to make a pork roast, home-made yorkshire pudding and some scalloped potatoes with rosemary and thyme
you’d come home and tell me about your day.
That smile used to crease your face like sunshine.
We’re laughing in our bedroom, arms and legs tangled around each other. I don’t know where I end and where you begin. It’s bright and warm, there’s food in the kitchen and music plays from the laptop we have hooked up to the speakers next to the heater. We’re dancing in the hallway the way we always do, right next to the open bathroom door – you look at me and my heart feels full. If happiness is anything, this is it and this is the most I’ve ever felt. You laugh and pull me close and your smell brings me to where I know I belong.
Suddenly you fade from view. The lights turn out and I am standing alone in the dark crying.
Tell Me Something Beautiful 