there is an island
where all our lovers live
alongside old friends
and the ghosts we haunt
I come in dreams
and rainy days
when the mist clouds the sky
and their spectres
blur the space
before me
have you forgotten me?
or, in remembering,
will you seek to forget?
I know what I do
that I stand at a precipice
and drift, and fade
what a curse, to be wild
that once we have our fill
we must go
what do we share
but a history?
no matter, stay!
radiant friend
who comes on a ribbon
where my past hangs
like a gray charm
sans ceremony
But how can you live
at the sea’s edge
in the winter winds
when even birds
take off in flocks?
But how can I leave
the clear water
that laps the shore
to the rhythm
of a placid heart?
Read MoreWhere do you go
when you turn the corner
and I pull my luggage
far and away
with a weight
in my heels?
If I look back
will I petrify to stone?
It would not do.
I must lose you.
to know the planes
of your face
in all manner of light
to feel the scrape of charcoal
and brush the dust away
from all that isn’t you
to paint lights
in your eyes
and lift your gaze
from tinted paper
to make a mess of myself
in focused frenzy
to be covered
in your colors
to let you see yourself
the way I see you
I suppose love
is like freedom:
Unceremonious
after a while.
When you’ve lost it,
an unknowable dark.
And when first felt,
like chasing the horizon
and meeting the sun.
Read Moredo you name
the beast that follows?
what of
its hunger?
all my life
at my heels
a spectre
in daylight
“stop…
quit… quiet…
cower….”
or she’ll have me
with iron jaws
and eyes
black as night
without stars
I’ve built you again
of sticks and daydreams
and stuck you together
with the sound of your name
I’ve whispered in your ears
the things I should’ve said
but your likeness
slumped forward,
crashed down, as if
it couldn’t bear the weight