Discounted Poetry

Your lips are resting wetly open So just slowly say my name. It's simple, One small syllable, And lifts from off your tender tongue Like the young red-breasted robin Finally arising From the lowest limb. - 3/3/26

I swear I felt your fire Through the airborne icy particles between And saw your brilliant circle About pathetic fools Who loathed to leave the darkness. I felt, Yet I did not believe Although I carried you. Your god of love did smite, My doubt my guilt. No chain or rock or hungry raven, Just an aimless warmth without a lover, Imprecise endeavor, Hunger without clarity or object. Undeniable rock always rolling over. - 3/2/26

You and I are naked nerves in winter, Sheathless in electric storms. If someone carried a canoe Or if we knew a common tongue... We curl protecting our softest undersides. I do not believe you hide a weapon, But I'm often incorrect And I can't comprehend your speech. We're both a country's length from shores. Perhaps we're seeking warmth, A covered cove to pull up on After being flung from splintered moorings, Home. The lightning's over. The black rebounds victorious. I see walls of water, Nothing more. Your voice is underneath the roaring. - 2/27/26

The hens were scratching for a change. I left the porch to find The rooster limp and sprawled. He crawled despite a hundred bites. He never once had strayed. You don't get a poem today. The weatherwoman promised rain. The sky collapsed to smears Of darkest gray debris. The breezes cleared it all away. The sun's a searing pain. You don't get a poem today. She neared to meet my bursting flame And lit and blazed against the heat, Yet crumbled fast just like  A fumbled finger tap above A cigarette ashtray. You don't get a poem today. - 2/26/26

The hum, The constant quiet whining Of efficient strip lighting, Hands unsteady, Cracked in driest air, The longest empty pauses Till the grey explodes And steals your everything within the sudden chaos, The evenings when you know The floor has dropped away, Although you cannot feel your fall. You only know you now have nothing Deep within your chest. You're moved outside the room To hospital hallways Smelling antiseptic Just like every hospital hallway. After the doctor tells you You pray as if it might Unsettle scales to balance, Knowing she will never make it. You see the morning Long ago, The fresh croissants and juice and coffee, Hazy sunlight barely bright enough For you and her on rumpled sheets To read voluptuous chunks of Shakespeare, Lyrics of a hungry love, And staring lost into her face, She everything, And this the world you want to live in, World you had eleven years You believed the dark collectors Wrenching her away Had taken what it would To cover your presumptions...

The foggy morning's a flirtatious veil You draw about mysteriously. Would I rather winter fell, An icing on your sweet desserts? I never see you clearly. I move the light to cut the night from you, A blade beneath the shoulder straps of lingerie. Alas, the shadows like my fingers Cling to you. They swallow you away. I breathe your scent, Pressed hyacinth, alcohol, And something animal. Fumes of perfume disrupt my vision, Sweet wine vapors stinging, Corrupting and delicious on my nose, my skin, My wet and burning eyes. The sultry humid air's The softest camera lens. Strawberry hair bobs in your face, The lace about your upper chest Above the swelling of your breasts, The dress that bends about your bare thighs Merely suggests your fleshy ass. You're pale as Artemis. I feel more than I see, Still unsure if you are real. - 2/24/26