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
-
Potomac Ambulation
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-
My love might seem a dot,
a jot to stop and end on
Up close you’ll note a dote,
a boat to float a dream onIota, No
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-
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 completelyLove Bites!
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-
Each day she comes for makeup,
her beauty like a river,
different from the day before.
I make as to enhance it,
but only find it ravishing.
I'm so ashamed. I fear
one day they will call me out.
Each day I tremble before a beauty
I cannot touch.The Empress’s Stylist
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-
I thank your universe
I speak it to your lips
I kiss it to your earEnunciation
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-
On Buddha’s belly
bumble bees buzz
fuzz tickles
sweet stings
lips drip kiss
full of honeyLove Nap
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-
For something to be just right,
it has to start out just wrong
or just a shame it doesn’t just exist.
Then, you just have to do something about it.
Once you’ve done it
— unless it’s just a shame to stop there —
it’s just right.Just Right
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-
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.”The Problem of Evil
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-
Sometimes
the instant cure
takes timeInstant Karma
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-
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 of your bottom lip.
I drank 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.
Face Off
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