Interference

i caught myself trying to replicate your posture
what was there left to do besides laugh
after one night, after all
usually, i don't even bother with things like that on the first night
just look at her eyes, her brow, her mouth, her hair
but you were so there, so
i indulged
soaked in your presence
you were, so
you were so transfixing to me
i don't remember a damn word you said
it was like you were swimming
the blood wasn't bled so much as displaced
with a lazy swiftness to it as if it had been waken from its cycle for a brief chore
it had every intention of returning
there was an effortless grace to your movements that,
i couldn't understand
my mother was a dancer, i think i mentioned that thrice
but your coordination was far more unconscious than hers ever was
i forgot your name

Undirected Angst, Finding Timid Direction, And The Continued Disability That Is To Address One's Insecurities

i'll never love you the way i love a cream colored off white tee with a bound scoop neck and cropped sleeves

CIARA

back that ass up, or something
if you can fake your way through it, i can
truth is i'm scared of closing doors i don't have to
the new ones bore me so soon
i know i messed up
pardon
i know i'm messed up
but i've always had a thing for gap teeth and i suspect you aren't entirely adverse to my own imperfections
you probably don't notice them in the same way i do
when was the last time you did
channel that

Chirp

make another noise and i cut your tongue out

that's the deal

fuck noise

you're better than that

you could be a damn painting if you wanted to

no, you want to be a person

i know

i don't make it easy

Fortitude! Punctuated!

translucent skin

aggressive, warped features

gangly limbs

bulging eyes

grown

known

What Else, Is About It

there are things that i have
and things i don't
ambiguity in my classifications does not amuse me
largely, it frustrates me, albeit passively

less often, it enlightens me
i am a man
but not one of consequence
it should not be in my nature to concern myself with empirical taxonomy
to wit, it is inherently self destructive

these are my lines
ostensibly, these are my limits
jeer

M/19/Pianosa Meadow

"i was starting to think you wouldn't come"

our weight was ample, and pinned the grass beneath us low

into a shimmering skeleton of our embrace

making the first proof of the love i shared with you

as if the earth wanted to break the news

perhaps the wind was less romantic

or jealous over the glimpse of your waist i had stolen
when your blouse fluttered up in a gust
it might have been eager

regardless, it picked up

and we were reminded of our context

we broke

you south, i north

and that was the last we saw of each other

Crystals

some things fester more beautifully than others
drop
step
learn
it will continue

We Love

(not by me)
i needn't remind you
your history has infected you
but your recollection has betrayed you

you thought the blood was ethereal
the way it hugged the curve of your cheek
so unsure of the gravity that compelled it
a metaphor or some shit
you stopped bleeding before he left
but still refer to an open wound

these are things that take time
in your case, it has taken more than that
you wear your battle wounds on your play dates
and wordlessly tell the tale

a malcontent with a false origin story

Puppy Dog Tails

things that hiss can't help but do so
for they are too proud of their identity to neglect it
even for the sake of practicality
you, my dear, are a garter snake
with its tail in the air

Venom

things pulse beneath my skin

things that are foreign to me

things that repel me

my elbow juts out like a broken doll

my bicep tenses

the fingers are mine, and then not

they clutch at air and crawl along the desk

knuckles lurching into the air

my mercy is too uncoordinated to reach the letter opener

so is my brain

it can wait

or rather, continue to

IKEA Person (Not The First)

hands that assemble

quicken pace

bed of nails

i lose the race

fight the push

feel the pull

destructive diligence

met in full

eyes can't see

no black no sky

my only swerving

asking why

i was real

it was all there

not enough luck

for us to share

Willingly In Poor Taste

it has to be a bomb, or else
it has to be a bomb or else it's no one's fault but their own
when it's a bomb, good, innocent people die
when it's the degradation of a culture, cheap punchlines are made
the bomb is the bad apple
without it, everyone in the city would be a villain

maybe what matters most is who dies
when they're white and rich, they're martyrs
when they're black and poor, they're data
you get t-shirts
we get tax hikes

kids are dying here, too
there's less blood and more pain
we prayed for yours
you sneer at ours
ours our trouble makers
yours are athletes
we have to pay for ours to play
with money we never had to begin with

when it's a bomb, you're Boston Strong
when it's poverty, you're Detroit Scum

Stagnant Destiny

strike me
strike me
so that i may finally close my eyes
and let the triangles advance

the luxury is not lost on me
but it puts me so far from your beauty
i am but an instant
you have me surrounded
suffocated
swaddled
cradled

there is so much fear in my heart
my brain nobly protests
but your gravity persists for a reason
i am tethered to you
i cling to you
you are within my reach

alas, i cannot bring myself to succumb to you
to adopt you is all that i want
and all that i fear
in time, my oldest friend

Arbiter's Grounds

you were born; and then i was
never mind chronology
your eyes weren't old, as you now call them
and mine
well i grew into them
looking at you aged me so
you never looked at the same thing
it was as if you were searching for something
i wish, still, that i had told you there was simply nothing to find

maybe you realized how brief your time was to be
and how vast the world was becoming
for you left to search for nothing in other places
there are infinite doors to be opened, after all
it could be that you never saw the defeat in that

we all did
rather, i did
there is no one else here
only space
and time

now i know what you were searching for
hopefully you realize that you already found it
the moment you opened your first door