friends or lovers

A friendship, however hard it tries,

Will always be romantic.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the friendship,

Gently it goes

Snowy trees remind me of sparkles

On her nails, the sparkles
glisten like a tree
left in the snow all night

I cannot let go

I cannot let go, you tell me
pointing at the photographs
behind where you spend your time
head first in the notes,
I cannot let go, you tell me
of the ghost that was her,
my mother who died in an accident
twenty years ago

over the sting

My scorpion, you inspire me to write
in secret about the times I have held your hand
without the sting over my skin

Appreciation

Saying words of grace
takes time
to arrive first to the heart
the black hole of all things

Smells like Christmas

It smells like Christmas in my kitchen,
smells like the time I stopped
in the heart of the house

right in the middle like a clot
not moving nor let anyone move
to make Christmas over cold stoves

here is a list of things you need for cake
that serves 6, realistically
even if you are on your own:

* peeled apples
* 3/4 sugar
* flour
* cinnamon
* nutmeg
* salt (to taste)

I stand on a flat corner
kneading the flour
needing a listening ear

I stand in the corner
in my house,
shaking like a belly dancer after a long show
cupping powdered sugar to an empty heart

Pumpkins carvings

Tastes like a potato
this pumpkin
carved with a strong arm

an iron fist
that knows how to manage
a kitchen and three children

rain or shine

Why would you think the sunshine is small?

Does the sunshine make you shiver?

does it?

These passing winds are ice-cold.

winds are you,

do they make you shiver still?

This is us,

Shivering come rain or shine

Longing for you in midwinter

Foxgloves in hedges,

Surround the farms,

This is the charm of winter:

People fall in love

And I long for your arms.

open questions to love

Is this punishment
that the way you move
impact my vision, love?

Surpassing heartache

Too long we have been on this road together;
you and I

we passed on another
on a cold winter night

we walked with awkward feet
colliding first into each other

too long have we been on this road together
but tell me how do we surpass

all the heartache that is there
with just a simple photograph

of you in a museum
smiling at a complex painting

folding into your hands
all the errors of my past.

a quick ride

The roller-coaster

tugs so high to sink again 

that's love, I hear you say

an aerial view of loneliness

There you are 

standing tall like an elm 

overseeing the crowds, like from a plane 

an aerial view of loneliness 

you come up

You come up,
like the treasure found at the end of a box

you come up,
like surfacing for oxygen

you come up,
like a word in a dictionary, looked for not found

you come up,
like a wind floating by quickly

you come up,
like the end of a choir

you come up,
like a sentence out of place

you come up
in stories, like a heavy character

you come up
in memory like its companion

you come up
in red and blue bruises

you always come up

A wedding, unnecessary

There's an air that surrounds you
when you sit wrapping the night like a shawl

- that there have been silver linings, yours copper
- that there are smiles and expressions of love, yours void
- that there is another way to pick roses, yours is to plant
- that there are memories made between the laughs, your phone saves coversation
- that there is a new beggining

the night, cold wraps itself around your shoulders
when at the wedding you sit to think
of different ways to spell love
without slashing your wrists open by its glass.

if all of this fighting went to rest

If all of this fighting went to rest,
he asks, face twisted like three branches loose
where would we bury newly minted weapons?

going back home

I am finally back 

you write to me 

I slip between sleep 

and waking to ask you 

what has been the most apparent 

difference you've seen over 

my body, the trees or the clear skies 

I hear you say 

the air, its different

smells like my childhood and your perfume. 

repetition, creation, repetition

The will to create
evaporates
with banality of repetition

for my birthday

The ink poured
out of my hands
ruining all the paper you gave me
for my birthday

Hug

A hug, that binds
the pieces crumbling
that's all my heart needs.