I wonder
what did I expect
bouquets of lilies
or a trumpet sound
perhaps

but what
did I give
a dirtied handkerchief
and I expected
you to thank me
for it

Science

I want to pull your hair
apart, zig-zag my finger down your scalp
and open the strandy curtains
peel away each layer
of cranial armor
one by one

I don't care about your heart
its droning, pumping
a single movement repeated
day after day
after day
sleeping and not growing

I want to see your brain
its folds and curves
its slopes through hills and fleshy valleys
the electrical shocks
the fingered neurons and synapses
forging connections
shaking hands

I care about the things
that break you apart
and mend you back together
your command center
your fight or flight reflexes
your subconscious memories
what holds your cards
what spins you around

it turns me on

I want that wrinkly mass
I need your firework thoughts
it's all I'm looking for
it's what I'm falling for

braid your hair apart, lover
let me investigate your insides

Thou Art More Lovely

every time I think on,
read, or talk
about Shakespeare
I think I
fall
in love

with the words
maybe, or
the sounds they make
letters
strewn together and
singing songs berry-sweet
and wine-dripping
it is hard to tell

but
either way
He lives for me
and could be
walking here among us
plastic sandals flopping
still with
black ink on his fingers

and that is
the man
I'd crumble for
(no ruffled collar
but a Hawaiian-style button-down
and holy pen in hand)

45.

with eyes that can’t
quite see
I won’t try
to be too smooth

I’ll just revert
like Caufield
and tell you that I’m listening
to indie pop

and thinking
about what you
taste like

just remind me
if you don’t
mind
what I look like naked

because the shards of
you are stuck
like mirrors
in my skin

but like I said
I have misplaced
my glasses

Saturday Night

we sat
in stagnant water
spilling ourselves over the sides
hunched across one another
your head tipped back
my fingers on your spine
dripping our loneliness down our arms
washing it off
pulling it down the drain
your hands cupped
bringing water to my neck
following it down my shoulder blades
again
and again
eyes glassy
bathing you with my hair
and thinking
that we could get used to this

A Lament

not eating, not sleeping
only
prowling the hallways
searching for the places you’ve haunted
your ghostly fingerprints
inside my colder skin

and I died the night
you left
my eyes glassy grey
you left
me wanting

twilight dawns empty
padding footless through my yard
making its way into the windows
the open doors
my hair and face

I am reminded of you always
by the flowers that have ceased to bloom
by the soil that houses them
you are my home

you are still my home

A Poem

Your arms grow vine-like from your tree root shoulders
Twisting through mine and pulling forth fruit
I am your wooden lattice
Bring me your leaves

Your sunlight dance and flowers fair
Your jagged edges cutting dress patterns into me
Like claws with loving armor

Smoke curls from your fingernails and lips
Shadows playing music on your face
Wings stretch tentatively inside your skin
Trapped and yearning to fly

your neck is a poem
your calves are a poem
your lacy belly is a poem
your leather boots are a poem
you, my lily copper love
you