Love is like
Smoke that never meets the atmosphere.
staying in stasis just beneath the clouds.
A cooling oasis ebbing and flowing under
a twilight sky.
I look at you, and we're ebbing and flowing too.
Nights spent crying and
worrying alone.
I feel you there, you're deep in my bones.
Haunting me, flowing through me.
Love is like,
How I feel I don't know you but at the same time
We've been together for 20 years.
I know your love, your fears,
You ebb from me, often, daily,

Stepping out on to the pavement,
Looking for laughs and light entertainment
Ear plugs planted, pushing through the crowd,
Drown out bad behaviour with the latest sounds.

The Lights are shining, like from another world,
The city is so exciting, inviting for any boy or girl.
Turn the corner, feet feeling the soft urban beat,
As visitors from somewhere dance in the street.

I’ll be your perfect little lovergirl
Writing you poems
And singing you songs

I’ll be your perfect little lovergirl
Whatever you say goes,
You can do no wrong.

I’ll be your perfect little lovergirl
Don’t worry about me,
I’m always fine.

I’ll be your perfect little lovergirl
Get high off your kiss
Get drunk off cheap wine.

I’ll be your perfect little lovergirl
Play with my heart,
It’s yours to abuse.

I’ll be your perfect little lovergirl
Go with other girls
It’s me you can use.

Preface:
On February 4, 1861,
the seven states that had seceded
by this point convened and created
the Confederate States of America
under the leadership of Jefferson Davis.

Just under two months later,
on April 12, 1861, Confederate forces
opened fire on Union-occupied
Fort Sumter off the South Carolina coast.

Listening to records with my roommate
that summer. We were very young then.
We talked about the girl. The one we met
at the western shore but didn’t get her name.

We watched, furtively, every one
of her eccentric and mystical movements,
and the dueling colors in her eyes.
All of it imperfectly perfect.

Later, while putting on another LP,
he said, “If the way she looked
didn’t take you to church
then God doesn’t need you.”

He was 18, and a photographer.
I was 17 and dedicated every fiber of my being to a boy,
as teenage girls often do.
I engraved his name on my rib cage
and branded his initials onto my inner thigh.
For him, I became an artist, a poet, a contortionist.
A best friend, a confident, a lover.
I remolded myself to fit better to him,
and was so successful he did not have
to change at all to fit me.

The scent was tantalizing
it crept up in his nose
The musky odor intriguing
he will follow where it goes

Not the greasy smell of burgers
like many other times
Instead, a heavy warmth
it flooded through his mind

Trotting down the roadway
nails clicking quietly
Anubis left the pavement
through the grass and weeds

Light shone yellow from a cabin
the door opened and it shut
From inside he heard
"Go on, ya little mutt!"

Two halves, black and white
can you reach within and dispel the night
this hurried pace, cuts with a knife
put down your cell phone, talk to me
I've come here with embittered strife
we have no right to argue and fight
our enemies have unlatched the door
they're here right now, dressed to kill
we've got to put our differences aside
and tie the bastards in a knot!
we've got what it takes to do the job
so follow me to Camelot!

When we were young,
lines had been drawn.
Less a friendly battle
than an all-out war.
It was always them
against us...
me (little Honey-Girl)
and our Dad, against
mom-Norma, Kathryn and Coral,
with black cowboy hats.
Blazing guns drawn
from toy holsters.
Something changed;
shifted...
When She hit him
with a frying pan,
I could see in Her eyes
the hate and anger growing.
I think he saw it too...
I saw the pain in his eyes
That is why he arrived

There’s a universe where I never met you,
Where your hands never ran across my skin.
We never kissed in the backseat of my parents’ car,
Faces flushed from the thrill.

Maybe in this universe,
We were on opposite ends of the earth.
My night was your day.
Where I saw a sunset, you saw a sunrise.
Both skies being painted, but with different brushes.