lust poem no.2
she leaves
panties under the
pillow, no
notches on the bed-
post, no clawmarks
across the back
of his-
tory; her story (just)
another scar between the lips
of now & never, her
perfume leftover
in the bathroom
mirror, her shape
imprinted in cotton-
sheeted (im)possibilities.
death of a houseplant (Rowdy’s Revenge)
photo courtesy of Josue O. Colop
.
Beside the chair
of sweatstained red
where I watch the city’s
freckling swelter
on sticky noon
Tuesdays, a lily
lies dying. Nothing
noticeable, mind;
a faint fading into
the badly primed
walls; a slow
yellow march
into composted
tomorrows. Wilted,
ailurophilic leaves
pulled floorward
by a gravity that could
kill us all. A lily lies
dying, and no amount
of hydrostatic
pressure-infused dew-
drawn drippings
can save it nor sweet
lullaby reverse the
slow spiral
down. A lily
lies dying; a lone brave
blossom lifts its
lily-head above the decay,
perches birdlike
poised for bloom,
an unfurling of pale
trumpets some unknown
dawn from now,
a defiant farewell.
True Story
Because I ruffle
more easily than the turtle,
I’m spending today’s sunshine
indoors,
picking my teeth
with the leftover shards
of yesterday’s poem,
flossing out
any subtext I
might have missed
when that
naked guy waded
over to hear my
verse-in-progress and sent
thought’s rumbling
boxcar right
over the side
and into the
river.
(The heavy-eyed reptile didn’t
so much as blink,
neither
at his unsubtle
arousal
nor at my muttered
reading. I
don’t blame him;
the poem wasn’t
half yet done.)
fluffy black nothings
It’s eleven twenty-two
on a Tuesday;
my head feels hollow; I
shake
and it
rattles like a piggy bank
with fragments of melted
Twitter streams swirling their
candycaned stripes
of dandelion beauty through
the wine I had
with the dinner I
didn’t. Acid and sweet tickle
neurons toward misfire, furrow
forethought, torment pulse
with a pounding
in time to the blink of the cursor
where blind fingers
on a blank page
fill a void with fluffy black
nothings in twelve-point
Helvetica that you’ve somehow
managed to read
to the end.
