Tempo -- 10 February 2017

You taught me

How to dance

To the beat of my heart

Shackles -- 2 February 2017

I never knew

That when you offered me your hands

The only place they’d feel right

Would be around my neck

Mama Didn’t Raise a Quitter -- 23 January 2017

Blooming bruises dot my skin like sunspots

I’ve become so accustomed to them

They’re now like freckles

Just a part of my skin

My hands were not meant to be my own nurse

Stitches and sutures and split lips

I can fix others but never myself

Love is but an economic exchange

And the aches put food on the table

I can’t walk away because if I try

I know I’d be dragged back by the ends of my hair

And why would I even want to

When the moments after are sugar sweet

Gritty like a spoonful of sugar to distract from the burn
And you know Mama didn’t raise a quitter

Lake Michigan -- 20 January 2017

Honey, you make Lake Michigan seem warm

But my mother has never sang me a lullaby that put me more at ease

Than the way your cold hands holding mine does

And I’m so afraid you’ll melt at my touch

You make me tentative and I can’t catch my breath

You leave me gasping and numb

But I’d live every day frozen to keep you
I’ll just buy better gloves

Sharks -- 11 December 2016

You come into my home

And try to blame me

For you not knowing the rules 

Soft -- 10 December 2016

Your kiss was as soft as the rain

I was pelted by your downpour.

I’m left drenched

Shaking
But unrepentant

Peter Pan -- 1 December 2016

When I was fifteen, I looked to adulthood

As if that would provide all the answers I needed

Too young to know that your world can still change at nineteen,

At twenty, at twenty-four, at thirty-two

When I was fifteen, I was too scared to be frivolous

But now I’m too old to be reckless

I spent my youth laser-focused

Who was I to know that all I craved was stability?

But I’m not Peter Pan and people don’t ever stop growing
We just learn to leave things behind