A Day Away

Cough up my spooked heart in my hands,

searching both ways for a crosswalk,

dust the sweat off my eyes like windshield wipers,

spit up old adjectives caught in my throat,

rustle my collar to hide my scratches and bruises,

facing the façade of life fluttering like a peacock,

strutting dauntingly with a two-step,

I’ve learned my dance,

my teacher's passion makes my spine tingle,

you’re nothing but a mountain marauder,

merely a pebble poking my soul.

For the Forever

I play this record, Never, skipping on base clef discordant notes,

the needle dances softly through the dimming day,

play it twice, Never, sipping vodka to get words down,

thumbing yellowing prose about a dead rose wilting exceptionally,

selling free songs and blurbs for the past,

Never rides along like an old jalopy,

whispering in my ear, have you ever loved?

chuckling seriously, even if he isn’t serious,

mysterious moon molding my room into a white forest,

better to lie still so the cackling bugs won’t find me,

Never, see my half-full glass nervously whimpering?

Thrice you repeat with steel toes on my back,

producing images in black and white,

about a distant fight,

Never, please lower the familiar tune,

I still swoon from your melody

and I know you’ll last forever,

but give me time to severe these sharp pains,

Please, please, Never,

don’t ever vanish completely.

The Dead

I’m dead.  That part of me was buried by the final words

shoveling on my chest.  I’m dead.  With the last drenched sight

of your pale form swaying in my mind.  I’m dead.  Cross-armed

in my grave steadily consuming the grave-diggers mounting dirt.

Shivering sheets like ice scathing

away my trampled heart, starting

to mumble your name, drained

of life’s vorpal grip, slipped

into that murky abyss, last kiss

to the dark as I tumble into the ground.

Don’t ever wonder if the dead ever love,

since that idea is the only thing that will never die.