Discounted Poetry

I pull the sand And force my birth From out the ocean, Eating the salty air. I couldn't carry you. I've lost my strength Like dry wine from open bottles Friday night. My fingers faltered. I lost you. Muscles tattered, I can only Shutter my eyes Against the sky And breathe And breathe And... - 1/30/26

We dated for years. She always listened to Billy Joel's The Stranger. Vienna awaited. I tied a rope and tethered tight to her, A planet orbiting with stars about my eyes. A decade afterward, I told a love about the choice In getting what you want. She stared through Silent, Dumb. "I'll never grow old." I realized we'd soon be over. - 1/29/26

Do not mistake this pit you fell in For a rabbit hole. It beckons, "Eat me." Leave it be, Leave it alone. The cat is just a row of teeth. The sneezing baby's but a pig. Your cubicle's a flood Of flat and pooling light. You meant to pin Monet To soften the grey surrounding. You smell the powdered cheese From chips the woman in the silky pants Is sneaking to her mouth The other side across the way. You raise your desk And stand and sit And sit and stand Until the numb like moss Expands and creeps To cover all. Her skin's delightful, Yet her lips lead to A hollowness  That won't be fucked away. This dull affair will not Release the colors Or unseal vanilla streaks Into the air. Put down the vial. Don't imbibe the potion. It will only make you smaller. Struggle on To something real. - 1/28/26

The darkness of the deepest night Accepts all questions. She is ever nearby, But never close. I still don't know. I wake And taste Delicious phantom lips, Relish her arm draped lightly Cross my startled chest. The depth of darkest night Absorbs all questions, Never answering. - 1/27/26

When she smiles, Birds fall quiet, mute. The sun pulls clouds on top its face, Defense from useless competition. Even street refuse All send delicious scents, The roses, cardamom, and cinnamon, To curl about our grateful noses. When she’s gone, It all collapses wrong. The moon eclipses the sun at noon. The sparrows sound foghorns Midnight till eight. Nothing computes. I can’t turn on my phone. The city tosses, Confused to be alone So late. I’m nothing to her now, Yet somehow She carries my world And twirls my ravenous attention Carelessly about her slender fingers. - 1/26/26

I'm entranced The way your blush Has missed your cheek, An awkward cherry bloom Aside Beneath your bottomless Cream coffee eyes. I'm unsure. Is your face advancing Or the room contracting? I am losing my footing. - 1/23/26

She never liked November, The senility of autumn, Failing sunlight, Dotage of the annual decline. The squirrels are playing tag Defiant over barren limbs Outside the window. She is staring out the glass. I doubt she sees them. Something falls Inside of her Along with leaves and mercury. I slightly squeeze her tender arm, Her chilly skin So softly pliant. I doubt she sees me. - 1/22/26

The wipers hardly work. Every light's an angel Centered in a halo Flat against the windshield. They were careless watching over me, And she collided Driving, texting all at once. I guess again I'm on my own. She offers staying overnight. Politely I decline. Streetlight's dripping down the wall, I watch from high above The city under gentle rain, Unsure it's drowning  Or enjoying the shower. Soon, it's two. I'm doing this all wrong. She's perfect. I'm not in love. - 1/21/26

The meeting is tomorrow. She sighed, There are no men down south. There's only little boys with pick-up trucks, Concealed weapon permits, Raging anger inches underneath the surface, All to compensate for limp dicks Tucked inside their pants. A change in latitude Would do you good, my friend. The meeting is tomorrow. I'm not ready. She is telling me New England states are beautiful This time of year. I've never been. - 1/20/26

For the second time, The days are now as long As when we first shared sightlines. It has been a year or two. You smile like an experienced bride But never slide an inch my way. The cicadas sing us lies. You repossess your hand And vanish,  Hiding at the end of the breadcrumb trail. You spread your feet Away from the pedals, Coasting down the hill. I soon am chasing taillights. We never signed our names. We still can kick the whole sandcastle down. You laugh like liquor Pouring out the bottle, Navigating bubbles. - 1/16/26

She plummeted, A fired furious meteor, Through the night To planetfall, To my backyard. Her newfound form Was drizzled white Like glazing on a doughnut, Sweet and easily devoured. She stored her feelings In a green glass bottle By her bedside Seldom opened. She explored the world Unsteady As a staggering foal Curious. The hours She viewed and memorized so much. She processed earth And worked the math. At last, the seventh year She rested, The master. After tasting everything, It all forfeited flavor. She began to stay at home Inside her room resigned And seldom left her bed Doomscrolling, Her inbox full, Her life top heavy and immobile. Lethargy only loves itself. She kept her feelings In her green glass eyes She never opened And never would touch to mine. - 1/15/26

The clouds closed down the day. The morning leaked electricity. I spy her down the street avoiding everybody. I thought at least she'd look at my eyes. Like a zombie suddenly flooded with memory, She's just another Rachel  Refusing every comfort. Love can hit you heavy Like a cold and hollow pipe And leave you guessing at familiar names, And love can carry you some distance gone Until you're lost on neighborhood avenues. She melted like the peanut butter In a bowl of steaming pad thai, Coating the local world we know. She never meant to buy What he was offering, And now she's chained To a dead and broken tree Starving, Refusing every comfort. - 1/14/26

I love to sit on benches at the park. The light is failing. I am watching racing squirrels Avoid the spots with children While flying tails Above the cold grey branches Hanging low over the empty space Beside me. Heaven kisses boldness. Women often choose to not. - 1/13/26

On Sundays, Some obscure denomination Gathers here in robes to plunge And die beneath the troubled waters, Rising to a spiritual life New. Under, Sunlight breaks into outlines of cobblestones, The blue streaks echoing the waves. The rivers carried military veteran corpses From the bloody fields of civil war, The final fading cries, Destroyed soldiers grasping  Dire loss of everything, Releasing loose Tomorrow. Turtles peek and disappear again Below the languid surface Rippled by the warmer wind. I once more investigate my phone. You haven't sent a message Either through electric waves Or in an actual bottle. I pry loose another pebble, Tossing solid earth into the chaotic unknown Without form, void. - 1/12/26

A frosty morning late in winter Lines the world in stark relief. The tree has lost a limb or two But stands unslanted, Not as proud as reassured, Resolved beneath the water Running thinly black along Its bathing bark. A cardinal outside my view Begins the day by stuttering  A lonesome song of hopeless love, Although a single car Is hushing us so softly While slushing past, Believing birds, like old machinery, Should bear their solitude in quiet. I also keep my silence, Even though You are my favorite song And Canada Is still so far away. - 1/9/26

The hollow brass, A belly bulging round to hold a body, Roast one living when they fire it to orange red, Is art Inside the upstairs exhibit room A bit off to the right. She's reading from her lit-up screen To the plaque And back. When I turn aside, She's reading me Although the years Have certainly not Sanctified my hidden dead Or cast me hallow. - 1/8/26

You locked the garden gate On such a sunny day. You threw away my poetry Within the shadow of our apple tree. Your servant told me everything. You flung aside your china plates And stormed along the vacant hallways, Perfumed with pinot gris. Last week You swallowed my lower lip And swore me little more than chocolate, A major, if occasional, indulgence. I died and fell Completely despondent, dazed. I wrote a world of words To blaze in orbit round your perfect head. You read and sighed, "Oh, well." My inconstant lady, What brought your heart to rage so violently? - 1/2/26