I rise before the strike of hammer on wood And the heat of mid-day eyes force me in In time to hear the lonely watch descend And the tattered armor flap in the wind Like a shelled sigh of victory In time to see the flood lights drowned by dawn And…

‘I make my case over and over. Unable to tell if I am convincing anyone.’ — I lay out ingredients. Not five minutes before, as I start to cook. Like normal people. I take them out an hour in advance. Set them on the counter. Unmeasured, unchopped. Mental meal prep. I am 10 minutes late. Always optimistic that I can get my shit together fast. A…

Every morning we take inventory of our failure Beds, too few Tests, too late Masks, worn out Accountability, gone We tick off, one by one The vulnerable years The secluded weeks The infectious days The interminable hours The seconds it takes to wash it all away Day after day, we…

We lie, drunk, on a couch too narrow to contain us. Like college lovers on a Twin XL, Sinking into one another To keep from falling. You ask how I am feeling how you should do it how I can be sure You wonder if you are enough if I…

I remember I re-member Teeth clenching curled lip Without words Strands flicked skyward Electrified within Ink like veins Tracing time and place and purpose Hands conducting symphonies In thin air, on soft skin Scar where eye nearly kissed iron And went dark I re-member I remember You

I feel it coming. Shadows creeping up softly, Smothering the light That just now danced in your eyes. I see it rising. Quicksilver forked and flickering, Electric tongues Setting fire to the space between. I step out, Clicking frame after frame, Chasing proof Of the current connecting earth to sky. …

There are 14 stairs in the house that grew me Where we held hands and locked eyes Blue on blue/brown Reciting the ritual rhyme On the step where we always stopped And marked The coming of the night. There are 14 stairs in the house that grew me Where I lay…

If had more time, I wouldn’t wish it gone so fast. Wouldn’t rush to an age when years dissolve in minutes. Would savor the slow unfurling hours, Unburdened by the weight of what’s to come. If I had more time, I wouldn’t mistake myself for the enemy. Wouldn’t lay siege to my…

I grew my hair long to spite my face. That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? Reins, woven lustrous thick, To pull me back When I strayed too far Or bucked too hard. Led from behind, just out of sight, I drank from a source That would not satisfy, Fed on empty palms Clenched tight Like…