A Reminder

It is important to remember

that we are the sum of our choices-

as such

it is imperative to also remember

that the power to change

our lives is always

within our grasp.

Sun Bathe

content to be bored

you smile

let the sun tan your skin

minimal summation

breathing in air 

through rolled down 

windows

a quiet street

muffled words

later on

alone

a drink 

another story told

another story lived

Proclaim

that which you 

know yourself 

to be.

Second Hand History

wrenched out teeth

healed up gums

a bite that leaves

saliva on the arm.

I bet

it must 

be nice

waking 

next to 

you in

the 

morning.

2am

I awoke to the sound of midnight

rain and wondered

out loud to no one

in particular at all.

Sell me a false hope fantasy

Sell me a better version of me

Tired

It was always the same thing at that bar,
you could leave for days, weeks, months,
and go back and still find the same people

the same situations playing back on loop.
On occasion someone would pass away
from the expected causes, or move

so they could start over. Those moves
would never work out because some
problems don't care about location.

It had been a few months since I had
been there. Walking through the door
felt like slipping a pair of shoes

that had gone past being broken in
and comfortable, to broken down
and ready to be thrown in the trash.

Most of those faces were the same,
some hair was longer or shorter,
the same cigarette smoke clung

to lips and air. I ordered a beer
and whiskey. She asked me how
I had been, I said I was fine,

that things had been busy was all.
I bummed a smoke from the man
sitting on the stool to my right,

both of his arms were covered
by sleeves of tattoos. Most were
faded but still recognizable.

That familiar combination of beer
and whiskey burned the same way
it always had. I sat there and thought

about another round. I couldn't do it.
I got off my stool and walked out,
it was late and I was exhausted.

No Fishing, Please

They found him bloated and floating downstream.
He had been missing for several days.

Police said there was nothing to indicate foul play,
likewise, no one could think of a reason he would

kill himself. They said it must have been an accident.
A few days ago they found a young woman,

she was only twenty-three. A man had been walking
his dog along the waters edge when he saw her,

face down, hair reaching across like blonde
tendrils. I don't like to read the news most days-

I'd rather sit by the water and think of better things,
better times, summers long passed.

Unfinished Matters

The word is not yet done with you,

it has an expectation that not yet been met.

Her eyes stare at you waiting 
for your gaze to meet hers. 

Three Random Things

I ache for that which I cannot have,
for beauty I cannot possess,
for love that is not mine.

Possession of objects
is a passing desire
no more solid than wind.

The substance of life
is that which burns
the aching spaces.

_________

I can see it in your face,
you are beginning to look
like your mother
at your age.

_________

We lost each other a long time ago.

________

Are we as beautiful 
as we see ourselves to be?

Permanence

When you erase the pencil 
from the page a sense 
of what was lingers on

no matter how you tried 
to remove the memory

of thoughts scrawled 

into papyral skin.

_

Modern Loneliness

Laundromat

People sit in rooms with endless patience,
moving from one to another,
space to space, changing functions.

There will be a clock hanging from a wall
marking the passage of the time spent
inside that particular room. It can move

with pained agony or sprint like an Olympic
runner. Wait patiently. Move hurriedly.

Have you ever watched time move
in a Laundromat?

Tumbling cycles, noise, faces looking
to be left alone, someone searching
dirty pockets for the right change.

A child grows bored as her mother
talks on her phone. A man enters
and thinks how beautiful she is.