Discounted Poetry

That stare Rejuvenates the dead and gone. Your smile Slays us all. The angel visited me early. She only speaks in warnings, Never blessings. Our highway's buckled and uncertain. You've got to toss down more Than penny antes When there's blood  In the middle Of the table, When lines relax to fuzzy smears Throughout the room, When all the colors fail to grey, When all you are Is taken, broke. I think I know a way around, A path directly to the middle Where the fire blazes  Yet does not consume. I can take you over, But you've got to make it halfway To my vehicle yourself. - 6/1/26

She said to count the moments Everything collapsed to water. I remember when you hid the knives Beneath the pillows Because the devil pulled your strings, The night you danced anointed Purple, pastel red, and tangerine, The stolen day the baby died. The list is dripping. Oceans lapse And drop down sediments, Recover, Wrenching whitest cliffs apart. - 5/29/26

Maybe I'm too tired to muster up a meal. Maybe I'm not hungry anymore. Perhaps I've eaten my last. She whispered soft Beneath her arctic eyes She loved me. I'm out of words, Replies, A penguin on the drifting ice, Floating farther from the land And friends and mates and snow And deeper into water Even fish won't populate. She radiates. I've got to go. - 5/28/26

Press the mud Beneath your fondling fingers. Push the brush across To trail a maze, Moonlight above The sudden city. Poetry, It breathes without the blood. It cannot  Set this scene, Her hair in tides against your shoulder Or between the window and you. When luck's in love, Her face now facing you, Her smiles always noncommittal  But occasionally, Something slips From narrow eyes And you're aware You're sharing a secret Like a holy hot Croissant in winter transit shelters. Inside the bus Within the gentle metal growl, Beside the greying pastures Letting loose their solid lines, She smells of pastries Glazed. Her heat, The blanket heart of everything. - 5/27/26

Her shoulders rise, Release, A little rap id er Now after I've leaned Into her breath. The air is threatening to tear, A rip unleashing Sudden tumble, Smearings colored Primaries, Confused and exhilarating. We resisted wary, Waited years, But now Our pulse has fallen Into one. - 5/26/26

The fully flooded moonsky Is lighting glowing black-grey. Underneath the mustard sun, The dreams are melting. I smile, far more honest than my usual, Interpreting her private language Of dancing hands and shifting shoulders. My stomach blazes. Smoke intoxicates attempts at thinking. There are days I know she knows And days I doubt she's ever noticed. Mercy narrowed thin her eyes. We'd never survive them otherwise. A setting sun is bleeding out. I settle hoping for another dream, A fantasy wherein she sees. - 5/22/26