i want to touch you
with my hands
and then
i want you to touch me
a simple exchange of heat
between two lovers
enough heat
so that we have to
throw off the sheets
Tag: love
Poem 20160309
she dances
on the sharpened edges
of razors
although
she doesn’t mean
to slice open
her feet
it’s just
there is the only place
she can find
to dance
and there is the only place
the music is loud enough
to hear
Poem 20160306
every loss
is a taking away
negative
subtractive
a chunk of you or me
lost to time
or circumstance
or maybe malice
and you feel it, a vacuum
i suppose
in that emptiness
in your stomach
in the surprise asphyxia
of certain moments
in the way your eyes try
to see a missing item
–can you spy the difference
in these two images–
but if a loss is only
a cutting out
a phantom limb aching
below someone else’s knee
why does it weigh
so damned much
Poem 20160220
when i was a kid i could buy
at the magic shop
or sometimes the drug store
magic smoke
dab between my thumb and forefinger
press together and spread apart
long strands would magically form
filaments
shiny waving gossamer
a gauzy arc between fingertips
a good trick
if you had dexterity enough
you made smoke appear from your hands
i found later
when i got into building models
that airplane glue
which smelled so good
and left me light-headed
did the same thing
the human soul stretches out
between us too
incredibly thin and almost
invisible but not quite
strongest when we are pressed together
thinner but still strong
still connecting
when we are apart
Poem 20160131
we have some moonlight–
the only clothes we can bear
when we tremble side to side
your heart is a bird
shuddering and flying free
you draw me soaring after
—–
Hat tip to Elusive Trope for writing in this form, a sedoka, and to Shadow Poetry for a fine definition of sedoka and katauta.
Poem 20160113
he had nothing
in his hands to offer
yet she took them anyway
–but my hands are empty
she filled his cupped palms
with cool water
in the dark
they watched
the moon undulate
in his palms
–you have enough
Poem 20160104
every movement between them
like a clockwork
made of gossamer and shadows
the heat
long cooled into something
less malleable but so much more
flexible and durable
Poem 20151204
in this darkened place
i put my arm around you
–sunlight finds a seam
Poem 20151126
everything can use a little editing
a gentle stroke of the pen
to make
what does come out
what should come out
–wait, i didn’t mean that–
would never be uttered again
because everything would be composed
pored over
marked up
submitted as galleys
and approved
before the words pass
carrying less weight
perhaps for the extended process
conversations would stretch
for days
and saying i love you
would take from the first glimpse
of morning sunlight
to when the full moon sinks below
the horizon
Poem 20151112
the red line cuts through the words
not only striking down the extraneous comma
nor marking the place where something
that was forgotten
should be forcefully inserted
the red underlines the thoughts
that should be emphasized
and marginalizes the words with
annotations
this word would be better here
this word should be excised
from your vocabulary
this phrase seems redundant–
they both say i love you
more poignant where one says it
and the other keeps you guessing
the red line opens a red line
in your skin that is white
like paper
but only like paper
Words and Feathers 