Potomac Ambulation

The river vast
yet the water scant
and the rocks arrayed
so I ventured
until a gap
no turning back
I leapt and found an isle
 with twisted trees
 and shallow shoals
 and a backward-flowing stream
Then the shore
 but just before
 the emerald river gleamed
So deep and strong
 I followed along
 over slanted boulders
 past sourceless pond
 till a creek drove me inland
 only to find
 I had been ashore the whole time:
 my abandon, my salvation

Love Bites!

You tantalized me with
 the tickles of your tendrils
I delighted in watching you
 traverse my entire surface
It was a bit rude
 and there was some pain
 when you took the first bite,
 my complexion blemished
Now, you are simply inside me
 I blink as you consume my very insides
 I feel faint and you turn me mushy
 It hurts and I feel like I'm losing myself
  a little bit at a time
At times, I wish you would stop
 gnawing away at me
I accept, with my heterozygosity,
 that my children would be bound
 to have crabby dispositions
As I wonder if anything will be left of me,
 a secret thrill quivers at my core:
 I envision your searching mandibles
 encircling the tip of my seed,
 devouring me completely

The Problem of Evil

The sun was high in the sky,
 the grass green.
Though I had had some petty
 rough patches in my life,
 I was still untried.
"Put me in, God."
"Oh, my child, so stubborn,"
 He mercifully furrowed his brow,
 gazing at me lovingly.
"I am your child.
 It is my destiny
 to take upon the suffering
 of the world to save it."
We looked over the infinite
 lake of suffering.
He took a bottomless cup
 and made as if to scoop it
 to its dregs.
With a deft slight of hand,
 He skimmed off a thimbleful;
 with the tip of a needle,
 He pricked the tiniest bead
 and dropped it into a fizzy drink.
In tenderhearted concern,
 He reluctantly gave it to me.
I joyfully drank it up.

 My tongue swole black-purple.
 My innards churned.
 I snowed flakes of flesh -
  my skin began to disintegrate.
 My blood ran and ran and ran
  till I could not think straight.
 The hairs on my head turned ashen;
  God counted each one
  as they fell off randomly.
 I knew helplessness.
 I knew hell.

As innocent as a lamb, I bleated,
 "Why have You forsaken me."

Face Off

With a wistful gaze
 you wondered aloud about
how we are living out our movies,
 wearing our masks,
 following our scripts.
Wondered what your mother and father
 and the rest of your team of angels
 might be thinking of you,
 your hair spiritedly disheveled -
 a wild iris accented with streaks of gray -
I thrilled to take in your face,
 suddenly realizing the splotches
 on your cheeks weren't bad makeup
 but simply your ruddy flesh.
I got lost in your pouty baby lips
 whose pink smudged past your cupid's bow
 - not lipstick, mind you - just a natural blending.
I feasted on your two too cute buckteeth.
 Your outer incisors curved to match the
  bend off your bottom lip.
I drunk in your large eyes
 as they peered off into the distance,
 perhaps resting upon some spiritual plane,
 and such assured, adept creases caressed them.
You transformed into some cherubic Hispanic
 version of Marilyn Monroe-cum-Isabella Rossellini.

I, who had witnessed my body
 dissolve into blisters over the years
 and fought tooth and nail for a few more
 in the vain hope of getting it back
 to finally be able to sit at a table with you
  over a cup of coffee
  and share a slice of cake.