Oranges As Sappho Intended -- 25 September 2019

Between breaking the skin and
Peeling back the rind
We re-enact a new original sin
Flesh on my lips
Fingers soft and sticky
My skin hungers for yours
Will anything be as intimate
As your lips kissing my fingertips
While I feed you an orange?

I Want To Swallow You Whole -- 28 November 2016

I want to swallow you whole

Encompass you in the folds of my stomach

Churning with the sweetmeats and sin

You dig deep and get under my skin

But it always seems to blister

I give you soft smiles and rough hands

I’ve never been careful with things that can break

The effects of your hands on mine would be devastating

I never saw love coming until it pulled me over a cliff

And are there rocks at the bottom

Or is this just another example of “love hurts”?

I offer to you the pulse in my chest

And neck and wrists

The word love is lodged in my throat

But every day it loosens until soon

My words pour out like honey, sweet and thick

But oh so slow

I love when you use plural pronouns

‘Us’ and ‘we’ and ‘our’

Please whisper promises into the crevices of my collarbone

That I’m not sure we’ll be able to keep

I want to carve my poetry into your heart
So everyone can see you were loved

Just Enough And No More -- 14 June 2015

When will I learn that some times
I can't magically make everything okay
And that filling in the cracks and spaces
Of others with myself
Just leaves us both empty
When will I stop looking for myself
In hearts that will never be home
I need to stop yearning to be held
By arms that can't contain all of me
I constantly need to remember
That I shouldn't lose myself
Just because I'm loving someone else too much
And making us both break
I need to work on loving just enough and no more

Cold Hands, Warm Hearts -- 11 May 2015

The wind was a thin whisper
Keeping life from spilling across the landscape
Birds fill the air above the cold canyon
Stray shafts of sunlight tint the world to a gold haze
You gather me close
Puffs of breath mingle in the small space between
Our skin cracks and sparks from the cold
Interlocked fingertips go numb
Holding hands is a natural hand-warmer
So I'm never letting you go
My jaw aches from chattering and you can't feel your face
You say you love me so much it hurts
Just show me where and I'll kiss it better

Untitled For Now - 1 July 2013

Before you go and fall in love

Fall in love with my faults

I’m selfish

I’m a show-off

And I overcompensate for perceived flaws

But just this once

I want my happiness to not be seen as selfishness

My love to not be shown off ostentatiously

Or my laughter to not be seen as overcompensation

Because when I fall in love

I want you to see happiness, love and laughter

Where I see my fatal flaws

You Can't Name All The Ways In Which You Love Her

You can’t name all the ways in which you love her:

You love her slow when she just rolls out of bed

You love her fast just like her road rage on the interstate

You love her red like her face when she yells all angry

You love her blue when she’s snotty and crying into the covers of your bed

You love her cold because it means her God awful sweaters

You love her hot like the tea she drinks every morning

You love her silly in every picture she takes

You love her serious, bent over textbooks and full of concentration

You love her faraway, lost somewhere in her head

You love her close because it means she’s yours
You just love her all the time.

Sugar-Coated Love - 8 May 2013

She loves you like syrup;

Sticky, sweet and a bit clingy.

You find traces of her on your hands

And at the corners of your mouth

And you never expect her to stay.

But she does.

You love her like slow summer mornings;

Breakfast in bed and pancakes before noon.

She finds traces of you in the lumpy batter

And in the pools of syrup you can’t stand.

And you never expected to love her.

But you do.