BLANKET

On our bed there is a blanket

It has been greeted by strangers

Become a desert to missiles

Filled with hurtful words and jealousy

A pitched hillside

Where hunched backs lay unmoving

I've crawled into its darkness

Night after night

Dove into the wreckage

With my lantern

Hoping for some light

At the end of this silent tunnel

I've spooned with the grief

Sifted through the ashes of our love

Been reduced to the seasons

Where people watch our bones

As they lie down exposed

Through our transparent cover

Still warm among the cold winds

But heavy with self-deception

On our bed there is a blanket

It has been greeted by strangers

Become a desert to missiles

Filled with hurtful words and jealousy

A pitched hillside

Where hunched backs lay unmoving

TIME MOVED SLOWLY IN THE SUMMER

His face was lovely

Like the eve of a slow churned sun

I watched him travel secretly

Near black blossoms in the pond

In early June among the flowers

Our love affair had just begun

But I tossed at night

In the yellow heat

Because I knew he wasn't the one

Timed move slowly in the summer

When I'd finally confessed

What I had done

I'd lost my heart to a woman's advances

And the sweet nectar of her tongue

But the woods and meadows

Full of honeysuckle

Will always remind me

Of this vicious web I'd spun

And how his face

In those final days

Was like the eve of a slow churned sun

BAREFOOT

There is nothing left to say

To these empty walls and floorboards

You are barefoot

Halfway out the door

I wish that I could make you stay

But I can see your face through the light of the window

And you are already gone

Your eyes are adrift and vacant

Your shoulders are diagonal lines

A blueprint to a body that is absent

And suffering

I cannot watch you in despair

With me at the head of your noose

Forcing you to love me

In such sweet bitterness and broken promises

LAND

Here is the land that I've grown to love

Heavy like a massive body full of wanderers

And you are standing among them.

Yet, I've found that I've been too joyful to sing.

Centuries of art could not resurrect

The notes and slender lines

Of your tailored face

I pass the time these days

Through travel across large plains

While the world goes on

In our absence from one another

Our past is a burnt bridge and hinged knees

Too stubborn to address our wounds

Yet, I still wake-up and dress myself.

At least I pretend to

With these soothing hands which seem restless.

Who fed your mouth, dearest?

Do you still speak with the fire of a voice ignited?

With that radiance and air in which I've loved

For I've felt the blows of desire.

I've been struck down and beat down

Hurdled my tumbling body into waves astride a sea of hurt

A place full of deceivers

But, oh how I want to sing!

Even in this place with no name

And no voice

I never wanted our ties to be severed

My earth to be uprooted

To be pushed completely out of orbit.

Or become emptied

Enslaved to a memory

I dream in dots and dashes

Pictures more substantial than words

Dreams that are commanded by gestures

From my heart

A defect caused by a sudden loss.

If I could love you again

I would recall our affections with echoes

And obscure shapes

Like ships returning with the tide

A true miracle to my soul

OUR LAST CONVERSATION

She said that she was disappointed with the world

Yet I took it personally

I was the bite to her scars

The hand on the blade

The pump

The coalmine

The kerosene

I mean, I didn't really listen

I didn't really hear her words

Or accept that they were her demons

That she was carrying them on her own

I felt them too literally without thinking

And I broke all that we were

So this is the song from my bleeding throat

That has been torn from screaming out in pain

That rang out amongst shuddering organs

Declaring, "Nothing will ever feel the same!"

Since I dug up my backyard with one foot in the grave

The voices from worms resound loudly in my head

The movement as they burrow deeper is my biggest regret

I suffer from nostalgia

Sleeplessness

Remorse

My worst accident

If you read this know that I'm sorry

It turns out that I was a disappointment after-all

A ceaseless void without you

Forgive me

I was wrong

A LOVE LETTER TO OPEN WOUNDS

There were taffeta dresses all lined in a row.

The blade was lying open and so was your door.

My love, you were dripping

Your head hanging low.

My love, you were dripping

Your breaths were shallow.

Soft, painted face

Your lips whispered, "Hello"

And my darling porcelain doll

So fragile, with ink on your brow

I wanted to kiss you

To feel what you felt.

But my love, you were dripping

You were bleeding all out.

My love, you were dripping

And I couldn't help.

My love, you were dripping

All by yourself

I told you I loved you

Then I cut myself.