March 2012
28 posts
2 tags
slow and steady
can you feel the electricity even now?
don’t come closer or i will burn your skin
with a smoke that will leave your eyes tearing up
long after i’ve left. there is this toxicity i carry
and i think you should know that everything i touch
becomes bitter. give me water and i will it into liquor.
your throat will thrum with vomit that you’ll leave
all over my bedsheets. i...
4 tags
summer's song
i drive with no destination in mind,
roll the windows down and they gape
open like wounds. i let the wind wind itself
around my body like veins. the cold air stings my skin.
i don’t mind. i cruise through all the red lights,
looking back for sirens. when i look forward,
i keep watch for animals walking towards home.
when the sun sets, the sky becomes a love note to the grass-
so...
1 tag
the longing season
The apartment screen door is open
and the birds are loud in their chirping.
It is the first day of spring and it feels like
this season has been here for awhile.
The smell of meat grilling makes my stomach knot
in remembrance of childhood: my mother’s chicken
roasting above a tray of quartered potatoes in the oven.
Although I have been a vegetarian for seven years now,
I have never craved meat...
2 tags
searching for salt
I break things always,
I bust them up so good
until you can’t tell the
difference between a birthmark
and a bruise. Maybe such violence
runs through my veins the way wild
horses run as helicopters roar overhead,
pushing them further and futher towards
the edge of the cliff. Didn’t you know how
bloodthirsty I was, the way my mouth hung
open over every gaping wound, my...
February 2012
30 posts
3 tags
To the woman standing at the bus stop beneath the...
I would have stopped my car and invited you inside
had I been driving the other way. We made eye contact
across the median, I could feel it. I wonder if you have
children, and if they are even awake yet to know what
it is you do when you leave home to go to work. There
are lines on your face that remind me of my mother’s.
How many sleepless nights do you have racked up?
How many bills...
3 tags
(dis)content
tell me our want cannot be contained,
not our howls when we touch, not our
screams when we don’t, not even the dirges
we sing when the silence swells like an ocean
of rain. tell me my blood is holy.
i remember when you asked me so many
questions. always, your curiousity burned, such
a constant buzzing you left against my throat.
we don’t talk as much now, as if we have said
...
3 tags
believer
The sky is so full in her emptiness.
I wonder how the clouds swallow that down.
My eyes snag the stars and dare them to
tumble forward. My palms have always been open.
My lips have always been stained with prayers.
Lately I haven’t asked God if He is listening.
My mother has stopped asking me about this.
I want to tell her- when my eyes witness the sun spilling over,
that is when I...
4 tags
the land of night
I wonder where you went—
Still, there are nights
when your voice slices
through my dreams like
a fin in water. So clear,
you speak to me. I listen
when I awake. My heart
waits for direction. Beyond
the window, the North Star
winks at me, calling me forward.
When I walk to the pane, all I see
is the full bowl of moon. I want
to drop my prayers in that bed,
I want to lay my head...
5 tags
Mummification
I was the afterthought of a dream.
When you realized you made a mistake,
you taunted time into taking me back.
Are we all just unpleasant surprises?
Or, the residue of dreams deferred?
I think of the way Egyptian queens were buried-
all of their belongings, their slaves, their cats,
placed alongside them to accompany them to the afterlife.
What spirits brought me here, and will they...
4 tags
the prodigal & the prophet
I’m so holy,
my sweat baptizes.
I’m so holy it takes me
seven whole days
for God to let me go
and come back down.
There are scars across skin
that make me seem holier.
People mistake me for someone else.
I am who I am.
Don’t call me names
I cannot understand.
You are who you think I am.
You whisper during the night
that you will repent for your sins.
I know this. I...
3 tags
returning home
I want to go back
to being contained
in the womb of a woman
who loved me before
she even met me.
That familiar darkness,
I will never again
know such light.
I used to pray for her
because she wanted me to.
When I started to lose
things, one house, and then,
another, and then, another,
I stopped talking as much.
I didn’t think God was there.
I still think he’s waiting for...
3 tags
heartstring
There is a reason why my heart aches.
I know her loneliness. She owns it well,
draping it across herself like a shroud.
Her longing is long. Even with my arms
spread open, I cannot hold that desire.
Sometimes, in the fall, the thirst is quenched.
The need to feel complete subsides.
I can feel the shift below my ribs the way
I can feel the rain against my neck. I know that
the forgotten...
4 tags
Reincarnation
You surprise yourself
at how much dirt your
throat contains. When
did you stop caring?
The morning comes
and the morning goes.
You continue to sleep.
When you awake, you don’t
bother returning any calls.
You hardly check for e-mails.
The shower provides you
with a temporary reprieve.
As the sun shifts across the wall
like your own shadow, you close
the curtains to lie down. The...
4 tags
battlefields
every field is a battlefield.
it is hard to miss the mines
and the bodies buried within.
sometimes the sky is a bruise
covering up the skin of sun.
i wish my body was whole.
there are pieces scattered
across the earth and i have
yet to come across any.
we are all prodigal sons
waiting to return home,
back into the arms of
the ones who created us
and believed we were sinless.
bring me...
2 tags
storm tracking
My body carries a lisp. I stutter between sentences because I am trying to retrace my way back home. I wish I was in the woods and being led to somewhere. I want someone to take my hand. There is a growling within like thunder. I feel electric on nights when the air cuts through my skin. Kiss me, then. Jump my jugular vein with your lightning love.
4 tags
chasing down the rain
the buildings are soft and muted. they are wounded animals
waiting to be released. summer is winding down and giving way to storms
that call in fall. the wind is cowboy boots with spurs. the leaves
have healing powers when crushed. there is a smell of smoke
in the air that occupies your heart. you see God in the children
holding hands and crossing the street, their teacher asking them to
...
1 tag
glass house
I hate how alike we are. The way our eyes blaze when we are angry.
The fire our mouth contains when we scream. I’ve tried to run away
from you my entire life. I find you staring back at me from the mirror.
How many times can I deny your eyes? Your hot-temper, just like mine?
That quick laughter that fills every room to the brim? There are days I wish
you were here again. Mornings when I...
1 tag
bitter
I remember not giving a fuck.
I remember skipping school so early
that the attendance bell was still banging
against the drums of my ears.
I remember writing doctor’s notes
and forging my mother’s signature
just so that I could leave school
without raising any red flags. “Excused Absence.”
Nobody even noticed how I wasn’t even there
even when I was. I laughed...
1 tag
Letting the Universe In
I’m the last gulp of fresh air you will swallow down.
I’m the last satellite that will orbit your sweetest spots.
Smoke the last cigarette you will light in my name,
exhale the last night we never spent together.
I will dance amongst the rubble of our ruins.
The night will become a necessary darkness.
I can still sing. I can still jaywalk across the tracks
as the moon...
1 tag
The Year You Thought You Were Dying
You wore your friend’s necklace. The one that was found in the gutter
next to the scene of the car accident, the one you couldn’t look at for years.
During the early winter mornings, the pendant was cold against your skin.
It was so cold it hurt. It felt good to feel that way. It felt good, the reminders.
You left food in the garden for the stray cats and dogs.
You scattered bread...
