Discounted Poetry

I never heard your answer, Your jean pockets stuffed With jolly ranchers, My handwriting, Me. The car backfired As your parents drove away. I fell beneath the blast. - 6/23/26

You toss yourself On top. I breathe the soap And salt  Aside your neck. You hold me down And kiss, The sun reflecting In colors off your eyes, Kaleidoscope. I drown. - 6/22/26

We sigh in steam Our gears so misaligned The sprockets break like teeth Against each other. Bloody hands Against the smoking wood. We blow. We pile leaves. The fire isn't there. - 6/18/26

She hit me with the beach ball. I satisfied, The best laid plans I made Pool side, The sweating bowl And slick carafe. She laughed. Her glass of lemonade, I let it fall. - 6/17/26

We both are lost somewhere inside The sweaty sizzle of the Thai food In a restaurant so hot and steamy I can nearly read the menu off your forehead. I have lately realized that even iron stomachs Do at times regret Certain delicious spicy peppers. I can tell this moment It is firing throughout your thoughts, And yet I know I can't start it with you. We're friends enough I'm well aware you never see a romance through, But dancing round colliding eyes, You talk between bites of noodles and shrimp Of Doctorow and Rich. I squint and see you In the front seat Riding slow to airports, beaches, Bedsides inside countries I can barely say. I often heed these warnings Like the tiny writing Telling me I shouldn't eat  The cookie dough Still raw, But over bowls of kway teow pad thai, I know exciting nights Would end with me Enjoying rice alone, Kincaid and Richard Price and Irving Tragically unanalyzed. - 6/16/26

I cannot understand. I read instructions, Put the pegs into their proper holes. You're blind to Stacks of pancakes crying syrup. You don't hear The diner seat I'm sticking to Or smell the heaviness of frying sausages. You know What I won't steal from you. Is that the reason Your feet are pendulums below the knees, Your smile Tastes of rotten grease? - 6/15/26