December 2012
11 posts
Merry Christmas everyone!
There's a Moment
When the hum of daylight slows
and the hushed fall of our lungs
is all that’s heard. It’s a moment
that I squeeze tightly between my fingers,
like futile efforts to capture the wind
rushing outside my car window.
It’s when I fall in love with your mussed hair,
and the way you chase me across the bed
in the throes of unconsciousness.
It’s what tells my scattered...
5 tags
We were Irreverent in our Sorrow
We mourned the loss of lips
with stifled cries in the backseat
of my Mustang, as the wild horses
thundered beneath our shaking legs.
Cold hands slid across our arms,
forging trails of goosebumps in our limbs,
like old memories rising from their graves.
The time you threw a lamp and cracked
your bedroom window as you watched me
stalk out the back door—
The day I left six hickeys...
3 tags
Wild Thing
When I hug a monster I tickle
his soft underbelly and listen
for the peals of high-pitched joy
that bubble out from some indefinable
place within him. He flashes those small
sharp teeth at me, as if to threaten
me with the edges of his upturned lips.
But I know better.
I know that night will soon into settle
into the white slats that stand guard
over the front yard, his grassy kingdom.
And then...
3 tags
The Letters I Didn't Have the Words to Burn
Specifics are the things we whisper to ourselves in the shower so that no one can hear us crying. We tuck them behind our ears or the backs of our knees, like dollops of sweat that slide off our skin and sizzle on the hot, hard backs of our chairs.
Words like “regret,” “betrayal,” and “bastard” spiral round your ankles like hyenas waiting to sniff the mortal stench of shame. It’s buried...
Night Falls
Dark suns, like disapproving fathers, glare
down at you before sinking
below the plum-streaked horizon.
The stars scatter into place as the moon
begins patrolling the unruly atmosphere.
When inky skies consume the moon
the night becomes bloated, and too heavy
for your small shoulders to bear.
But strain, strain! against the darkness, run
headlong into the smoky shadows, stretching
with...
3 tags
Variations on the Word Tired
This is a word we use to excuse
ourselves from participation. It is perfect
for days when our body says
“just lay here and the world will cease
to spin, if only for a fractured
fraction of time.” Our mind barges
in with some nonsense about the frivolity
of five more minutes and how I should buy
more milk, because that carton in the very back
of the fridge has been congealing...
The Darker Sex
The Darker Sex
Trembling lashes hide her unending
nerves, those weary
eyes that dart from doorway
to window without pause.
Like old salt on a weathered
dock, she clings to sunny days
of chicken salad in the park
on Tuesdays, even as she tries uselessly
to throw away the shaded sight
of his jaw, clenched shut and looming
above her. She whispers it’s okay,
please don’t stop… don’t stop,
don’t…
...
November 2012
2 posts
6 tags
Maternal Atrophy
I start to finish the half-drunk cup of coffee
that you pushed upon me as you stamped out the door. No kiss.
No time. There’s a bit of brown-black sludge left at the bottom.
Perhaps it’s the bitter remnants of some ever-resistant grounds.
I swallow anyways.
I didn’t want the coffee. Or the children. I didn’t
want them, I don’t want them. But your crumbling eyes forced me
to abandon my...
3 tags
9 Snapshots on Looking at my Parents
I.
He kicks sand onto her pink
beach towel and ruins the last
bite of macaroni salad.
She smiles anyways.
II.
Laughter bursts through gateways of light
mauve lipstick. His ears lead his eyes
to the still-brunette hair
shimmering in the silver night.
A kiss simmers.
III.
Rainbow dewdrops gather, as the curling
ivy leans in to hear the secret words
he whispers beneath the hum
of the...
October 2012
2 posts
3 tags
A Bartender is Like a DJ, and a Bar is Just a Pity...
A bartender mixes your drinks
with a splash of sorrow, and a wink,
just to “give it a little kick.”
As if to add to the ambience,
he kindly puts up dim lights
that splinter off your crystal tumbler,
and blasts “What Hurts the Most”
through the scratchy, ten dollar speakers.
She left trenches in your life,
footsteps traced and re-traced every day
for years, and now she’s—
gone, and...
3 tags
My Memories Stretch Across the Pacific Ocean
There’s something spicy about mariachi trumpets carousing
in the California air. I can almost smell
the papas fritas popping in crackling oil and the sharp
spice of chile burning my tongue. My mother sniggers
at my stinging eyes, and only the cool cement
breathing beneath my naked toes relieves me.
The sprinklers come to life, and I’m suddenly sinking
into the old hammock of grandma’s sunroom, as...
August 2012
5 posts
3 tags
Sometimes
we need the bad
words too.
We embrace romance,
innocence, and
serendipity.
But even mortality,
tragedy, and
destruction have their place.
Adore his tangled
limbs and never forget
that true anger only comes
from those who care
most deeply.
So love him
even when the
bad words fall.
4 tags
Sometimes, I Wear Vaseline Smiles
And I flinch
because I
refuse to say the
words I should:
“That Hurts”
4 tags
The Grays
I spoke to you
about time
and how it had slipped
quietly through the shine
of our lives. Yet you
insisted that nothing
had passed by
in those glittering
moments. Yet if you
knew all
you had missed
in the small
spaces of your blinks,
you would never
close your eyes.
The gray consumes
the bluest skies.
3 tags
Full Bellies
Another day
another pound
thuds down upon
your hunched muscles.
Each sunrise
tips the scale further.
You teeter for a moment,
hovering above the unknown
and clutching your crosses
with broken fingernails.
Haven’t you had
enough of concealing
chinks and scars?
When will you stop
bearing what does not
belong to you?
Let them see the
pain they caused.
Let them eat your misery.
3 tags
Treading Water
You never noticed just how large a queen sized mattress can be. The sheets puddle around you as you watch dusty fan blades circling above your head. A stream of heat snakes against the left side of your body, phantom signals from limbs that no longer warm your bed.
At first, you had no tolerance for his advances. Legs were shackles that bound you, and embraces were quickly escaped. You gave him...
July 2012
1 post
4 tags
Relief
I find myself so tired
these today’s slipping
into yesterday’s
tomorrow’s coming
too soon to tell
where does one find
the small sliver of
time that signals this
life has trudged to
the end of the line?
April 2012
7 posts
3 tags
Settle into Slumber
Fallen bird, child of Earth.
With your bruised beak and mangled
wings, let Mother hold you tightly
to her warm breast. She bleeds the hurt
from out your trudging veins and croons
that old, familiar lullaby. The bubbling brooks,
lapping water twisting softly around the smooth
curves of once-jagged rocks. The clouds,
the warm mist that surrounds you,
filling you up white. The notes she...
3 tags
Moving Breeze
You love me like the wind outside my window. Circling, curling, surrounding, escaping, yet never gone. When I am still I hear you. You murmur through the blanket of black, the small bursts of tenor thudding softly in the twists of my ears’ drums- the skins stretched taut and tuned to the notes of your heart’s every beat.
3 tags
Instincts
You and I
became We.
Became fused in
dimming daylight.
We divvied up laughter,
gathered up memories
like drifting flecks of
fallen light.
I lapped your skin
even as it leaked
past sadness and salt.
I claimed you,
my bite marks
painted you for war.
And you conquered a
yielding body,
my bare-assed white
sliding and writhing
above your slick bronze.
My tongue coaxed
battle...
3 tags
What thoughts tear
through your sleeping chest?
What ghosts grip you and
litter phantom clots
upon your
cold blue lips.
Lips that do not cry, and
eyes that do not lie.
Mind without sleep, and
soul without rest.
4 tags
Corazon
It sings while you perch
upon the ledge of a balcony,
knuckles white y
labios cerrados.
It runs naked through the
streets of Mexico
baring its gringa skin
without shame as if to say
“!Mirame! !Te amo!”
Mirame… Look at me.
(Me mires, pero no me ves)
3 tags
Cucumbers
Sharp bite of lime,
the sunburnt lips
pursed and pressed together
in the shape of
swift inhalation.
Grimace of soured tongues
and the eyes that water
even as the hands
reach for more salt.
ordinarywonder asked: Where have you been? Hope all is well!
February 2012
5 posts
3 tags
Divided
Green leaves shrivel
beneath the beating of a
lonely sun who
never got the chance to
meet her.
3 tags
Fingertips
Take in the grit of
every grain that
lays dusted upon the
cold, pristine table top.
Now shiver,
because the feeling
is all you have.
3 tags
The plip plop of rain
bursts upon the pane
of our window.
and though
the clear sound
is found
everywhere
it is only there,
in the Silence
where we straddle the fence
tween where we begin
and The End.
3 tags
Your skin is a
mold of my body.
I leave my wrinkles
imprinted upon your wrists,
and you come away
with freckled shadows
dancing on your shoulder blades
as my back lays white
and hot beneath the
furnace of your lips.
4 tags
Gracie always had a pencil. Some days it was tucked between the white shell of her ear and her brown hair. Other times, when the teacher gave us too much homework, the chewed eraser nub stuck out from the folds of her honey colored bun.
One day though, I saw her pulling everything out of her cubby and dashing it onto the rug. Her brown lunch sack lay ripped open on the floor, with...
January 2012
19 posts
5 tags
My two front teeth pierce the skin of a red seedless grape, or a raisin rouge sans pépins, as my zip-lock bag so kindly informs me. Is it odd, that I delight in rolling new words around the pathways of my tongue?
I love Spanish, for its sensuality, its carnivorous ways. Mi amante takes me between his teeth, tan poderoso yet I do not hesitate to let him explore el sabor de mi piel. I taste to him,...
3 tags
Hunger
A need that scorches the
insides of your belly
with the flames of
things that we
used to have, but now
can never own.
She’s sharp, pointed from her stare to her black leather shoes, freshly shined. But her voice is curbed and curved to bend with the sway of her words.
I wonder briefly if the night finds her casting away the edges with each piece of cloth. Here, a sweater, there a pair of crinkled socks. I can almost see the black smudges concealed beneath freshly painted fingernails.
3 tags
They sit in front of me, tittering over ratty clothes and caramel-colored babies. The tan one, with corneas such a disappointing shade of brown, proclaims that twins run in her family. The aforementioned eyes scope out the surrounding seats before she confides that she dreads the thought of having twin black girls. Her friends console her, and rush to assure her that they feel the same way.
I...
3 tags
He clutched a sparrow to his breast,
crooning the sweet harmonies to
her lilting voice.
She sang of her devotion
and he of his praise.
But his eyes narrowed.
The parts unravel and he
imagines her arms’ embrace as
bursting with impending escape.
Hands squeeze around a
fragile neck, as they
slap the shackle to the
scrawny angle of an ankle.
Here, flight singes
every feather, as...
4 tags
Numbers
She paced up and down the walkways, scouring the shelves and making sure that she never went down the same one twice. Her list was perfectly organized in order of aisles. She had been to this store two hundred and sixty four times before. Twice a month, twenty four times a year, for the past eleven years. If the store moved an item, or improperly stacked it, she would refuse to buy it. Today she...
3 tags
According to Them
If I am in love
I should never need
tea to ease the rasp of
screams and drown the
bitter taste of anger.
We should sleep soundly
and serenely as little
cherubs must linger in clouds;
no imperfections can
reside in the lover’s nest.
But sadly, our star-crossed eyes
met a dozen times
before they caught each other
staring across the room,
and our hearts did not
ignite a flame...
5 tags
Not Safe for Virgin Eyes (I'd Rather Use a...
I want to hiss vulgarities in the cup of your ear as my cunt slithers down between your legs. I want to tear at your skin until the poison mingles with every atom of blood that we posses.
I want my callused palms rubbing up against your smooth throat as I squeeze, and drink the desire that bubbles from out your pale blue lips. I want to devour you, to make you mine, forever.
And if you...
5 tags
Enrichment
He loved watching her paint her toenails. She would hug her knee close to her chest, and drag the brush gently over each nail. Every so often, she would pause to purse her lips and blow a soft stream of cool air across her toes. As she dabbed off the stray flecks of paint from her skin, she admired her work by wiggling her newly polished nails. In that moment, when her toes curled and her...
5 tags
Someone asked me once, “What’s it like, being an athlete?” I’m sure at the time I just tossed out a nonchalant phrase like “Oh it’s great.”
But now that I’ve had some time to think, I’ve come to the conclusion that being an athlete is akin to being in love. It takes loyalty, sacrifice, and sincere enthusiasm.
You spend your youth flirting ...
4 tags
Her eyelids crept open.
“Damn. I’ve gotta pee.” Slowly, she wriggled out from underneath his arm. He groaned, but his snoring soon resumed. As quietly as possible, she trudged into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
When she came back, she found him sprawled out across her side of the bed. One eye roll and two nudges later, she managed to get him back onto his side of...
3 tags
I want to pull poetry from the shell of your ear.
Sometimes I stare at the pale skin peeking through the strands of your hair, and I wish I the words would birth themselves.
But they don’t, and I can only sigh and simper over the words you stole from me: the ones I never possessed.
4 tags
On Love and Friendship
Louise and Emma had been best friends for over forty years. Back in college, they would stay up late studying together. Emmie, as Louise was fond of calling her, always had her nose in a book and her feet in Louise’s lap. Louise, on the other hand, preferred to stake her claim on the coffee table. Her textbooks lay splayed and opened, taking up every corner of the mahogany surface. She lost...
3 tags
Hate →
I hate when I can picture exactly the image and moment in time that I want to convey, but I can’t extract the words.
I can hear hesitation in the stammer of her voice.
I can feel insecurity in the way she holds her arms stiffly at first, and ease when they wind themselves around me like ivy roots on a wall.
I can taste heat radiating from parted lips.
I can smell copper on her lips as she bites...
4 tags
Jane →
Jane’s fingers trembled at her side, a mixture of nerves and anticipation. It didn’t help that the ceiling fan was whirring above her, the gust sending ripples of beaded flesh through her exposed skin. She had never posed nude before, but Sean’s eyes had clouded with such naked joy at the thought of painting her; she hadn’t the courage to ruin his vision. Secretly, her heart swelled to think ...
4 tags
Why do you stay? He asked her once. He was cooking dinner, and she was folding laundry on the living room floor.
Her hands paused for a moment as she considered her response. At last, she returned to her folding. She replied that she had yet to find something that made her feel more at peace than to sit on their living room floor and listen to the sounds of Home.
Her words tumbled through his...
4 tags
Little Liza,
Little Liza,
Why did
you have to go?
You’ve been a naughty
little Liza,
with your drying
eyes so big.
If you hadn’t shouted,
hadn’t cried,
maybe I would
still have my
Liza, my good
little Liza.