Cool/Calm (2013)

I hide little shreds of myself in the folds and on the sheets of your bed

And hope that it’s enough to let you know that I’ll always have a piece of

Me there to keep you company when you have those dreamless nights

Maybe something of mine lingers in your mind and when those fears

Come around and pull you deep in the throes of sleep you’ll see me and

The wait won’t feel so long, but so far the days pass by more quickly for

Me and I’m still minutes to the hour and wishing I could hold my hand out

And press the fingers of time to my will and I would speed them up and

Slow them down all according to the time that I get to stand beside you

In my head, I feel this bed underneath me in a darker room without second

Story windows and without clothes tossed about the floor and my door is

Always shut to keep me trapped to myself, all by myself while the television

Hums out tunes in the cadence of conversation all rehearsed and forced

Into fantastic dramatics with a punch-line where the audience laughs and laughs

And I’m laughing with them, feeling with them, anything to ignore the gap

I feel growing inside of me like the distance of miles of dotted interstate lines

Where’s this technology to help me jump the hole in time and find you smiling

We wrap our words around each other like sweaters for the comfort of knowing

That we’ll be here still when the days fall to the countdown and we’ll be down for

The count, wasting away in the early hours of the day feeling much better than

Before when the anxious anticipation built up like Legos waiting to be destroyed

As our insides emerge from the sea just off the coast of Japan and make an angry

Hand to slap apart the pieces of the wait into chaos as we lay all tangled up in grey

All tangled up in maroon, all tangled up in clouds and a loud, grinding bed frame

We take a moment to trade things to say and I can’t help letting my roots grow down

And touch the floor, when before I never thought I’d find anything worth the trouble

Drink Deep, My Subtle Thoughts (2013)

There’s a sting in my eyes like the itch of the future

That comes spilling out in silken words spinning webs

I’ve been trapped by the spell all disheveled and waiting

Wanting to feel this maelstrom roll right over me

High winds tossing hair and stealing air with every look

That I glance your way, I see your big doe eyes and

I’m more the deer in headlights with a smile and biting lip

These jagged cliffs spray the smell of sea salt up into my face

I’m to blame for the balance that teeters under my feet

The waves are yelling something obscene and in this dream

I feel the hand at my elbow, I feel the softness of your breath

When the way you say things combs up my back with a

Gentle cascade of verbs and nouns and emphasized adjectives

And suddenly I’m firm in my resolve, I’ll less a companion

To dance with this anxious feeling in my belly and this calming

Move keeps my feet rooted and keeps my hand in yours

The tumble of the falling trees with their somber echoes in the canopy

Shooting splinters under hooves, these are the red woods that

Jimmy Stewart kissed Kim Novak in and they were hidden deep inside of me

So to see someone so familiar running through the brush with laughing

Red hair, I keep my heartbeat steady and my hands stoic at my side

The sun splits through the leaves and sticks to my clammy face

But all too real, I feel the sweat gather on my arms and legs and

Smell myself turning under the sheets, my eyelids are bright and hot

These blinds keep nothing out and pull me from my dreams, but

Better yet is you’re just as real to me here underneath the bed sheets

Velour Shade (2013)

Cheers to this dark room, quiet and warm and calm

A glow under the door from the streetlight on the corner

Shifting shades in the odd edges of the eyes, they subside

As a rattle-lunged cough scatters them like roaches in light

No buzz from the bed but the head still keeps spinning

Pillows like clouds muttering some sort of conspiracy

Cheers to this last night, full of whispers and shivers from the cold

An icy mist against the window puts spider webs in the glass

And like wretched, boney fingers they spread and spread out

Reaching out toward freedom like ghosts trapped in skin

The slight wind howls in the splinters of foggy morning light

From the flickering street as the concrete exaggerates a sigh

Cheers to the midnight that crawls on hands and knees

Stretching a pale arm before the other, breathing slowly

A dark trail of oil in its wake, slimy as a sweating snail

Nails on blackboard dragging the weight of bones and shadow

The patters of breath that hang in the chest shallow out

Glass fingers become ice and the cracks run along white knuckles

Scurvy Sea of Seams (2013)

Knot and knots and anxious thoughts

All bottled up and lost to the tides that

Came in cold and low humming sweet

Songs of sirens and bitter melodies

We tied the strings that popped in the

First high wind and rendered themselves

All but frays in the furnace of the day

That dragged on and on and on and on

The kites we made with our shaking hands

To spell out words we couldn’t rightly say

In the sky somewhere high enough for

Other eyes that come on prying by

But for the life of our salty tongues

Nothing but coughs and sighs could

Escape our wicked mouths dry with

Death and regret and oceanic laments

Let the wind whisper the eulogy quietly

While our eyelids grow heavy and weary

And sink like the ragged bow of a wooden

Ship into the dismal and salty deep blue dark

The Morning Manic (2013)

In the soft glow of the morning light

I panicked

I found myself face to face with a window

And heard your soft breaths

Rise and fall

Behind me

My stomach knotted

In worry

My brow furrowed

In confusion

And in the sleepless state

Of manic sickness

I cursed under my heavy breath

To shrug off the spell of sleep

And find you right where you fell

To the hands of the sandman

All curled and content

I missed you so much

From less than a foot away

Our backs were to each other

But I’d rather my arms were wrapped around you

Like a blanket warm with my affection

So I moved in behind you

And gently pulled you back to me

Wrapped my sleep-heavy arms

Around you

And fell back

Asleep, to dream