it’s funny how suddenly spring comes,
and I don’t hear your voice whistling my name in the winds,
and my favorite songs don’t remind me of you in the slightest.

It’s funny how this time last year, I was madly, deeply in love,
and now? I could not be in love with you if I tried,
for how can you love someone you don’t even know?

Did you cut your hair? How are your classes?
I will not ask, but that doesn’t mean I’m not secretly curious.
Still, please do not tell me; when I don’t hear you in the wind I hear songbirds instead.

In the evening we walk backwards
To nowhere in particular
Collecting shoe stories.

Avenues and alleys blind
Old haunts that no one wants
They remain like a stalker.

Shoes of patent leather pounded
Pavements blister bloody red
Small rocks our shoes collected.
Full of painful pebbles

Tripping and stumbling,
Treading and re-treading.
Regretful and remembering,
Walk right back to the beginning.
Walking backwards all evening
Collecting the Shoe stories.

When the entire mug awash
with floating leavings
by golly by gosh,
sipping said herbal brew
analogous challenge
to eat spaghetti squash
with one chopstick.

Earlier yesterday February twenty fourth
two thousand twenty four
found yours truly (me)
blithely consuming delicious
La COLOMBE DOUBLE LATTE
cold iced latte, complete
with a frothy layer
of milk and a touch of sugar.

Lower gastrointestinal war civil
immediately declared
because yours truly beleaguered
by lactose intolerance.

Daddy are monsters real?
My daughter asks with pleading eyes.
which melt my heart of carbon steel
as desert sun begins to rise.

There was a time I'd have said no
But age has taught me the hard facts.
Should I tell her what I know
Monsters are made by their acts.

How can one say they don't dwell
everywhere that Hamas roams.
Monsters sent to us from hell
to destroy our hopes and homes.

"Where are we going?" his young daughter asked.

"To cheer up some of my friends," he replied.

"They seem to be a lot of work for you," she offered with concern.

"Yes," he said, “You’re right. The very best kind of work."

Don't cry to me,
when she breaks your heart.
Don't cry to me,
you were told from the start.

Your self-serving prophecy,
for a down payment,
a disgusting choice,
"what she can do for me!"

You can't call something trash,
pull it from the can,
and by some miraculous flash,
expect it to act any other way.

Don't call me,
when it's over.
I could care less.
Don't call me, ever.

We both know your nothing but a lie.

Today I took a leap --

I jumped over the fence
It really made no sense

I vaulted over fire
(I wish I'd vaulted higher!)

I sprang into the pond
I failed to spring beyond

I bound across the field
Broke up the farmer's yield

I skipped over a crack
Of course, I threw my back

I hopped into my bed
To ease my dizzy head

No more leaping for me, I fear
Even if it is a leaping year

I don’t think you can fully get away from me.
When you’re with her, you’ll feel the ghost of my love.
You’ll open your eyes after kissing her and you’ll think it’s me.

I’ll haunt you everywhere you go.
Every road you drive, every street you walk,
Every goddamn second of your life I’ll be there.

I’ll be waiting, watching, lurking.

I think you killed me.
My soul is not tethered to my body,
My emotions switch on and off at an instant.

My ghost holds all of our secrets now,
So I don’t have to.

My first bicycle ride
it takes me back to
my childhood memory
a precious gift for my birthday
instill me with a curiosity
like a baby’s step
learn how to walk
with the count of 1-2-3
despite the many falls
I beam with a smile
carry with determination
of mindset
keep on going
like the energetic bunny
it did not daunt me
until I get it right
with the persistent practice
I never give up
to find fear as an excuse
learn from my flaw
to make it better

It's an extistential right to have a choice
better to have stentorian voice
to get your views across
and nail it to the cross
some sort of manifesto
to gain your due respect you know
rebuke all your assailants
and vocalize complaints
for many come and many go
beware the ones who lay you low
then stand again uncompromized
your place in life epitomized
when people round don't seem to care
you'll lift your voice
with those who dare
develop lofty paradigmns