Discounted Poetry

You envy How my steps Are helium. I once Was jealous How my friend was carelessly carefree, And after several years, I saw the greenest strings, How tight her parents' thousands Held her up So high from off the ground. I've hardly pennies, And I know you wonder, Squinting for threads Around my shoulders and my waist. It's not the same. Instead I've watched it all take flame And crumble down To ash So many times. I always find a narrow road That leads through blood and shit, Through loneliness, To a painful, slow Rebirth. It isn't cash or credit Or inheritance. I've stood and walked from rubble Quite enough To specialize in traveling With little in my threadbare pockets, Lightly, Barely touching earth. - 9/25/25

Raleighs.  7-Up and bourbon. No one near except the blonde employee Soon to know me not so long But well. You serve your country, Serve the company. They serve a pink slip, So let's get this over with. You'd better look at that note. It does looks like Tacoma down there. What's above? I'm in no rush to know. I care for only future And the sky Against my face. It can be done, so do it. Grudges give reason enough. Parachutes are A given grace. - 9/4/25

The rain is banished from the air And puddled over darkened pavement. Squirrels are skittish, Testing sidewalks with short sprints From dying tree to dying bark And up to barren branch. The empty sky is singing Clear my spirit. My memory is sharp, But I've rebuilt from smoke and rocks And burnt up timber I can't remember how often. They were all the same. They're not alike one bit. A legion, Faces sharp and rounded, Scents vanilla, talcum powder, strawberry cream. I haven't pictures. Several died before the camera phones, And I was never one for photos anyway. Some days I'll slip and see A fuzzy sky-blue turtleneck, A grey and black knit sweater Tight about a long and skinny torso, A professor after school more adolescent boy Than educated woman. I gave my everything to most of them. I never see them anymore. I live alone With years that grow Like puddles underneath a roof That slowly drips. You never notice how they pool So deeply With the months. So many friends h...

She has the pinkest parasol She opens As we stroll together round the garden. Showers in the weather threaten. She is careful, But she always gets so wet. She tells me secrets Words cannot express In sign language. Her hands are fallen angels Ever climbing  For their heaven, Always falling hard Back down. Her yard is not so wide But deep. I burrow through her rain-drenched wilds Swallowing her ripened fruit and juices. She begs me pluck them slowly at the first, But soon She doesn't mind my thirsty rhythm. She's amused throughout our stolen time, Despite her freshest purple bruise. - 9/22/25

I've slept So many hollow nights, The hours climbing through translated books Or staring down an ancient foreign film Besieged by words Of faded yellow-white As brief as camera flashes. After a calendar of years, The dark becomes your friend, Your lover. The blackness swallows me And fills my chest As I must swallow it, A quiet seduction lethal, Smothering. I snatch Your sandy bob, Your melting icicle eyes, Cheeks of ripened strawberry patches, The carnal arced geographies You wear. - 9/19/25

Who knows what time the sun will set? The golden hour never ending, Washing down your thirst With water from the hose. These cars are modern sculptures, Massive, stationary. My second son is waiting at the football field. My wife is staying at a friend's Deciding if she wants to leave. I'd sneak a cig, but he would smell. The sun's obscene and aimed at me. It flares as still as traffic. I no longer know How all my days are meant to work, How years supposedly combine Or fit, My pieces always spilled across the carpet. I was growing up To fly a starship. - 9/18/25

I remember when You showed your body To me. I knew you took a step You'd never keep, Too far, Too steep. But for a second, You were fearless, Drenched in splendor. Years Are hired thugs, Your light has fallen, And you seldom Smile As you did Embarrassed And excited, Thrilled. You keep Your feet These days. I hope You still Recall The sudden Weightlessness Of leaping Blind, Invincible, Divine. - 9/17/25

I strive to steady, Locked down constantly away, But every afternoon, The strangest gravity. You snip Tripwires in my room. The floods Rise ever higher, Yet you speak In fire, Daring me, Taunting. - 9/16/25

The crooked fingers Pass the window, Instances of dying By the decade. Time has flattened. I saw her first Beneath the greens Now thirty years ago, The blush of bloom Within her blossomed cheeks So round. We stole away enjoying Dirty rapping through a shared earbud. We laughed,  The rebels. Soon, I stole a kiss or two, Her sharply florid scent intoxicating, Fragrant. Flower lips delicious Set my name to pounding verse, The rhythm overpowering. The trees are smears Across monotonous landscapes, So silent and bent and black. - 9/15/25

You wrote a Bible, Diamond declarations certain, Poetry of silk and skin. You then transfigured Words into your flesh. You flowed of milk and honey. Bowing, I partook, imbibed The body and the wine. You swore low and sure, "I will come again." The blood has drained From off the moon Now yellow as aging holy pages. Stars shot up And filled the night once more. The curtain tatters kissed and joined To one. The world untilted to its proper place. I'm hollow where I once was filled. You're gone. You'll never grace this world. I slowly rise and stumble, Unbelieving. - 9/12/25

You accept the searing Through your feet, The agony of wind and sweat Infecting your eyes Several miles in. This weight's a constant crush, A mountain on your hurting spine. Your lower back and cramping shoulders Aren't forgiving. After scores of cities, You believe This is simply what you do. You do not have to die Beneath this. You can stop and leave it here To motionlessly pulverize the dirt Instead of you. Let it drop. - 9/11/25

You are on my tongue And in my lungs, Your heavy fragrance anchors me Down in this ignorant and vulgar city Where they can't see that more is often less. I guess they never visit Dallas. But what's geography? I know of people in New York Who think that Adam Sandler Is funny and hilarious And boring folks in France Who listen to Imagine Dragons With a fervent zest found only In Mariah Carey fans. My hands survey Your gently curving leeway. You are culture, Continent enough to stay Exploring. - 9/10/25

I pour my memories, My days of bliss and years of painful aching, A yellow cupcake batter Carefully cascading Yet forever over the liner's rim. She says she reads my poems, Loves them, Speaks italics That her name would make a perfect title. - 9/9/25

At first, I thought I might be Hooked, The daily catch. In the pictures She is beauty, Black and white And ample in the lovely places. Here in flesh, Her hand is shaky, Lips are speaking silently A little spooky. At our table She is warning We all are dying slowly  From the plastic While all our medicines Are toxic, Making us too sick. At times, The pills won't let her eat For weeks on end. Her eyes are doves from Noah's ark. They find no place to light. They only flit. I see too clearly She is frightened, Losing tread. I hold her arm and watch her, Disembodied angel Unable to touch or to tell her, Another lost spiritual lover Passing directly through her. She is not quite solid any longer. - 9/8/25

You named me, Furnace breath Not yet articulate. I felt you speak. I'm certain You're across The city, Lost to life. You drizzle over me. I steady firm your shoulders. Rain is running Underneath the window, The quiver of the glass, A yellow white Streetlight Between the pistons And the darkest lemon clouds Restraining high A lime juice sky, Your flavors Understated, Your decisions Always permanent Disasters Ever after. - 9/5/25

Ocean-patted Mounds and castles Hold beginner yoga stances beach side. Godzilla was a wave, And monuments don't swim. So cry, A child facing forces Dumb to impotent desires. Or shake a violent fist  At careless sun and sand, Or Swan dive into the water stains And press your thumb Into the ruins, A novella brief Defiantly announcing your existence. Even the tablets of ten commandments Fashioned from the very finger of god Are not displayed in a museum. - 9/4/25

Cheeks and foreheads candlelit A possessed marbled gold And kindled humor Poured from lips Of bottles and of dearest friends. For all I've learned From trips and constant journeys, Insightful lonesome cities, Barren roads, I'm baffled. How did I forget? She catches my focus slipping, Touches my hand, And spreads the glow That holds me here, My loves, A sprightful dance of  Burning orange shadows. - 9/3/25

With a half-cocked grin, My automatic words, And hungry tongue, I complicated you. The planets never stirred at all. They just continued in their Gravity-locked orbits, Bored and unaffected. You were Bound in. I alone Inertia Apathetically Neglected. - 9/2/25