n/a

Everything changes for the best.

If you don't believe it, well, that's your call.

no more money to burn

"no more money to burn"

your hands fall upon a calendar to

designate

holidays. darling, this is sleeping weather.

so i wait in bed for another air strike

called love. meanwhile, trees keep growing in

dreamland.

n/a

What you write isn't me and it isn't you.

i know a place

"i know a place"

i see friend's faces in moments of writer's block.

they speak simple sentences about the emptiness of money and

the way snow comes when it is needed the most.

a living room filled with cigarettesmokescent

reminds me of the way our warm indecisive blood

scared us into corners and the way golden lamplight attaches

to our clasped hands.

by morning we were no different than smoke

captured in crinkled water bottles.

note: "Heaven is whenever we can get together."

-collaboration with Vince Bauters

concealing

"concealing"

are hearts always pinched?

your terms, vocabulary, and body

are intricate

bits of intimate moments

and i know them well.

men do nothing but talk in your stories.

toy soldiers make for poor company

or so i've heard.

the mystery
was that we never trusted the author
but participated
in the

conflict.

note: Understanding where someone has been and where they're from is perhaps the most endearing concept two people can share be it relationally, physically, emotionally, or simply small talk tales of travels and experience. This briefly touches on that idea.

-collaboration with Vince Bauters

stone lion bench

"stone lion bench"

i'm dying to get old.

old, old-fashioned, with you.

tired of slipping into unmarked

graves

so fate will cut me one last

break,

to become who i once was.

there are no hands around my neck

but my fingers are still

shaking.

hand in hand

"hand in hand"

walked home through golden

rain. crossed the street and i'm

back where i started. she's worse off without

me.

if there was a cure i'm sure i'd

have found it.

but i remembered that you were always more comfortable

with cold feet.

(first draft of previous poem)