Poétique

Salt

True love never dies
How could it when
You’re so entrancing
I find myself cowering
Like a flower from
A sunbeam that is boiling
Frantic not to blindfold
Myself from your light
In an open all night church
On my knees asking
The universe to make a way
Acrimoniously without
All the pieces I had dreamt
Of disintegrating
Like sweet sugar on
Your flush hot skin
Smooth like amber
On my tongue
You can’t be genuine
If you’re not and I
Surmise that you are
Beyond belief
Abracadabra
Oracular a magician
Of sorts that stirs a
Fire in me belly
With your wand
Lighting the undergird
Of my spirit with a
Fortitude that beholds the
Salt of your earth

Bullseye

It’s easy to talk big
But I can jump in
Really hard and mean it
The important thing is
Not whether you can
Believe me but
If you can remember
Anything can happen
The great peel of excitement
Is always slipping off
The edge of my tongue
And often times
I end up
On the floor somewhere
But how do I get there?
Trust and honesty
Being trustworthy
Of anticipatorily redeeming the qualities
It doesn’t matter anyway
The dirt comes off the heel
In the same way
Every time
With a rinse and a scrub
I won’t shut down for
Any lack of what was hoped
But what was hope
What is hope?
Sometimes like smoking
The dope of someone’s lie
Their inability to try
Or just a handsome cup
Of almost
Barely there, I…
Barely enough, I…
Why commit to anything
If you can be free to commit
To nothing everywhere
I want to meet someone
Who gives a shit

Cup of Possibilities

Lack of a two step plan
Leaves me with a lot of
Don’t just say it
Because you think it’s
What I want to hear
I crave what I know can exist
But have no evidence
Of such bliss
Just tiny fragments
Of assembly
Or mirror images sparkling
Like crystal shards that broke
And fell down from the frame
Of which they came
And then were somehow
Glued back together again
Onto the dress or the suit
Of an other
On a garment
That looks back at you
Like the stars do
Glimmering with
Desire and hope
A small favor
To ask from a big
Cup of possibilities

Someone Else

When in Rome
Do you resent
The way I smile
Overgeneralizing
Emotional reasoning
Cognitively distorted
It may not be true
Contorted views
But it feels real
When I’m with you
When you want it
The way I sing
Grabbing away at life
Never repealing
Would you
For fame
Throw me under a train
So you can have it all
Without me
Certainly if you resent me
How could you present me
To others
To the world
Too much art
Overspread
Too much good to bear
But not for
Someone else

It’s the Truth

If there are
No more requests
I’ll let you go
For now
I don’t want to
Slap myself
Or wear a sign
Around my neck
That says
Don’t manipulate me
With the obvious
Love story
Don’t allow me
To manipulate you
By sending charming
Hearts to hopefully
Make myself feel better
Or to convince myself
That you love me
Even if I
Made a mistake
Because I know
That you love me
I’m just really bad at
Telling myself that
It’s the truth

Cute

Oh my how
You look so cute
When you’re ordering food
Like a media darling
How do you adorn yourself
Every morning
How do you resist
To kiss yourself
I have no meter for
This sort of thing
It’s like taking a cool dip
After a long hot walk
To savor you
To put my arm across
Your back
To rest my chin
On your shoulder
To smell you
And feel your hair
Brush up against my lips
I’m not sure that
I’m equipped
To find the words
To tell the truth
Except to say
You look so cute
When you’re ordering food

For Them All

It’s cold and dark
Like emotional blackmail in here
Helping the less fortunate
Especially when it’s yourself
Can be impossible
The teachers discussed him
So now
The teachers disgust him
Similar sounds but
Different problems
Are any of us unloveable?
Maybe if the macaroni
Hadn’t gotten burned
Everything would taste better
Just like if wearing boxing gloves
Means we have to fight
Maybe the distance between us
Means we won’t have to
Fight at all
Or maybe we could fight
For them all

Shrine

Meditation by design
Obelisk by dog divine
The greatest lights
The brightest eyes
Shining back
With pure delight
Underneath a tree
Or by the water
You are a stream
You are a shrine
And a reminder
Of the beauty oh
What wanders
Here on earth
Valiant trust mixed into
Multicolored lust for life
Highlighted by the
Brightened exclamations
And the poundings
Of a heart
That never dies

In My Mind

I had to try
The very best
Not to gamble my
Pretensions away
Somehow by gathering every
Seed of my innocence
At all costs
I stopped still
In the tracks of symbolism
As if my heart depended on
Resolving all the
Meaningless corruptions
That ever existed
Deep interpretations
Percolated up
Like a punch in the gut
I don’t recall
Any black eyes at all
Just the untarnished memories
Beating like mallets
On the membrane
Of the xylophone
In my mind

To Be Tasted

I am reaching
My crescendo
To accomplish the things
That as a human
I thought I could not
O what beautiful joy
To uncover courage
And the ability to fly
A sonata of
Immeasurable strength
To be considered
We don’t have to
Burn our books
To find our strength
Or tear our buildings down
Even the sweetest
Tangerine still has yet
To be tasted