Discounted Poetry

The years are not Unfurling uniformly. The blanding -  Dangers and potential Ever afters Start to fizzle, Lose a little color. People slowly sanding down Until the quirks and sizzle Die. The road is clearing, Smoothing, Speeding up and growing boring. The frustrations of a newer truth, The horrors lit by letting go, The heartache of betrayal -  I am certainly afraid, But slam the faucet to the right Again. I didn't move out to the burbs. My radio is never set To the older music of my youth. I still am cutting nets And savoring the soar, So wreck my life a little more. - 2/28/25

Across the chaotic roadway At the sidewalk's edge The glory fell like Driven sheets Of rain. The scent of sour breath And lipstick, It's so hard to understand And difficult to explain. I escape elected kings And puckered simps In sandy streaks Of strands of grain on top Her ivory neck. Outside the blackout curtains, Strafing shreds red holes into the wounded night. We hear our measured breath And smell a humid lushness Heavier than the acridity Of gunpowder. - 2/27/25

Your laugh, Like ocean spray From whale's spout, Sprinkles mist While splashing against The ceiling of the sky Like fired water Spattering the blackness. I'm conjuring grey clouds And holding down the sun. - 2/26/25

I tripped, My chest too heavy, Swollen tight. My breathing raked across The rocky darkness. I was drowning on the driest shore of evening's deep. I punctured, Drained my heart, And carved a chasm You can rush into. I wait the night Awake and bleeding, Hoping. - 2/25/25

I've dipped my fingertips Into the shallows Of acidic wanting, Mad and sharp and futile, Joyless noise Forgotten yesterday. Awaking this morning Seeking gold Beneath her yellow jungle, Watered soil The scent of empty hands, The desperate lost lunging Deep into unknown, Her earth The greenest rain, Her breeze The salty flavor of turquoise. - 2/24/25

You blinded, Made the sun above the city melt. I lost my unembellished speech Beneath the pour, Sunflower sleet. I am wiser. Paper promises should not be written Near a fire. You left me lost and waterless. I lie to sleep And taste concrete,  The dusty clay. You once danced down the golden rain. - 2/21/25

Another hour funereal, A greying noon. Your silver breath invades the air Before the chilled car seat. Your puffy coat is rustling From your shivering. What error or omission Was committed to make Your name within my spreadsheet Red from black? I brush your hand. A blushing still betrays A passing change you mute. The column with the ending dates Is hidden, Locked, A table cover Color renders perfectly transparent. - 2/20/25

I thought you saw right through Into my secret mind, But now I know You only showed some water in your eyes And maybe had a problem With the ugly lights. You never made it to my thoughts. You never caught how violently I felt, How torn, How ready to implode completely For a try. - 2/19/25

Full and empty, Useless energy, An excess of coffee after a sleepless night, I'm a walking earthquake. Memories attack my evenings, Chasing sleep away. Years have melted, Waxen candle puddles. I still smell you In the dark. - 2/18/25

Normality, That site you loved to browse So late at night And never found again. Days of echoed rumbling From marching down the street, The final tin of tuna, Children cold and pale of skin. We thought that this was just another, The installment in a series Stretching back before we started. Reading, You can see the number of the pages Still remaining. Life, Reality, Betrays no clues, The ending always sooner Than we ever thought possible. We were exchanging Valentine presents Just last year. - 2/14/25

You left the flavor of iron. At night I often stare at nothing Hours till I realize And twist my neck And sit for minutes longer. Yesterdays are dead and drifting, Dusty spirits caught in drifts And gone. I see them, Fix my sight, I weightless Yet not floating. That lost day I stayed within my chair And watched the shrinking line. As others viewed your body, I still studied your open eyes Injecting me with helium. - 2/13/25

Fried chicken, Hard-boiled egg salad, Lines and paper plates And summer flies That follow silent gathering, The epilogue to services of loss. We remember there's something important We can not remember, Yet we feel it thick and overwhelming Like a devastating ocean wave, A mournful ballad haunting our youth. - 2/12/25

Her breathing split, Banana underneath  Three scoops of cream. The seconds I sat Outside her room ran, Melted custard. The verse she left behind On illustrated paper, Finger charts for tone holes Making instruments cool Sing. - 2/11/25

Your kiss, It streaked My cheek And showed My secret truth To enemies everywhere For three dark days. The stone was heavy. I was weak. I couldn't lift. I had to roll it forth. My closest friend Could see no mark, Mistook me for some other Dead man walking the earth, His wettest eyes amazed. - 2/10/25

Leaking tank And broken wiring, Another year a lemon Now abandoned. I sign away my life again, Insert a key, And rev the new one up, An empty stomach Starving. - 4/7/25

I sensed the earth here barren, Toiled setting dwellings, And developed a method To support a steady breath For eighty years or so On top this rocky soil. I believed the gravel ground To be a beauty. You Were humming as you traveled Past my fenced-in lot, And flowers shattered the compact dirt, Exploding brilliant High against my settled being. - 2/6/25

We speak our pain in prayers. We pat the dirt. We leave, At first a mournful shuffle, But eventually We lift from off the ground We left them in. The hurt is heavy, Tears and water weigh so much. With time, we cry and grieve to where We're light enough for flight Again. - 2/5/25

Grey is streaked. The spindled clouds Surround a sword of gold, And down below, The ravens and crows, The ones you know. Your fabrications, Alcohol in open flesh. You weren't oppressed. You just grew lazy. Back into your shady shell, You little one. You're not quite built for love. You only falter Telling tired stories Failing to disguise Your festering fantasies, Obsessions fleeing You watch retract, Too stunned by fear to snatch. You haven't wounds You didn't slice into yourself. You died some years ago. - 2/4/25

A smile now unwrapped, Beckoning or dangerous, Intentions so uncertain. The fear An oil well untapped. She couldn't map his brownstone eyes. - 2/3/25