blue

Love defined seems like this
(to me- today)
:
someone to whisper my secrets to-
in the dark, under cotton covers
my mind is open and lips are parted
the world comes tumbling out
and my leg is bare and you are in love
with both skin and voice
and how they slide over and
wrap around you.

...but we have whispered feverish poetry
to intemperate statues
thrown up pearls at the feet of false gods
those more interested in legs than lips
and we must admit
others have spilled sonnets into
our own cold, alabaster ears
and truly, truly
we heard nothing...

(if we could go back
maybe I could hear the words you spoke
maybe they would turn me from stone
but that is Regret, not Love)

Love defined seems like this
(to me-today)
:
Someone to whisper their secrets to me
And i will drink them in through
warm, pink ears you can kiss and
i will bury them in a heart
you chose to love
and hold you with skin
that is like anyone elses except
it is mine and yours.

and when all the world sees gray,
I will look to you and very gently, very softly say
:
blue
you will nod and
hold me closer and this
seems like love
(to me- today).

Poetry Arc of 25

i come up
out of dark waters
gasping in comfort
throwing up fear
dragging Christ into my lungs
and for a moment
i believe i've learned to swim
and i can stay here
with him
and then
down, down, down
God escapes in bubbles
i push him out and away
my fingers claw an inch of air
but my feet are heavy, so heavy
immersed in alone and lead
and i'm gone-
the surface and spirit above
unseen and unknown below
and i know, i know, i know
soon i'll have to come up
or learn to breathe dark waters instead

November 25th, 2008

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

hey you
hey heart
you have no right to hurt
so just beat your blood
and shut the fuck up
i don’t care what you’ve heard
you’re a bloody fist, valves and tissue
not a romantic flower
a sighing lover
so stay out of my business
and try not to seize, palpitate, murmur or fail.
Just try not to kill me thanks
Unless I tell you too
Because I hate being the bitch
Of a mythological shape in my chest
That doesn’t exist

December 23rd, 2008

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up and
loved the captain of the football team
with a Mohawk and 67 dodge and
he had my heart
but I was too hard, too dark
so I had him
when we were alone and seventeen
and for a few years
that was enough

but then I closed my eyes
I woke up and
loved a boy in a jeep and
he had my heart
with an unpacked room and a worn passport
he would kiss me then say “it’s just not right-“
so I had him
when we were weak and twenty
and for a few years
that was enough

and then-
I shivered without my pride and closed my eyes
and faces flew by
blue eyes and brown
rings and long distance
martini kisses

and it was not enough
because i was lost
and twenty-three

and then I woke up and
there was no love
there was no heart to have
but there was blood
on my boots, a coppery stain on my lips
and I was surrounded by those I’ve destroyed
and those destroying me
when i was dying and twenty-five

and now i wake up
reformed and something more
my bones are still healing
but i love a spirit and community
poets and theorists arising
desiring more than words and wine and intellectual meaning
forming into healers and lovers and their hearts are breaking
so they can have my mine
i choose to love the wiser and better
the fools that Christ loved in all their selfishness and glory
now that i am almost alive and twenty-five.

February 29th 2009