Poems
01.30.24
Cigarettes Turned Sweet
I hate the smell of smoke.
It lingers like thoughts of you in my mind
No matter how long it's been,
Or how many times I scrub myself clean,
However ill it makes me,
I will forever chase the feeling:
the first time I was seen by you.
I fear I’ve lost it forever,
But I won’t quit
Because with you, even the smell of
Cigarettes turned sweet.
Maggot
Unfair! Unfair!
How dare you
Steal her from me.
On this street
You sleep
in an unmade bed
And dream of what
It would be
To have your body back
From tubes and needles.
Injecting love
With impurity
Hush! baby she is here
Your smell is home
And hell
Inescapable, intoxicating
I’ll wish your condition
not be terminal.
Unearthed
Seeds are stuck between the slats
Of the dark wood table.
A gray haze is cast
Through the spider’s web
God! You look so beautiful
In this light
I study you.
I write my scripture.
The love in your eyes
That's it. That is it.
Stripped raw and desperate
Seal the wound with your seed
It must be dragged up
By the root
Why must you
Just trim the leaves
If you want it to grow
You must water it
Darling, this thirst cannot be
Quenched without spit
Taste it, and give it
Back to me.
Surrender
It's a haunting
Violent and nameless
Laughing in an empty hall
A kiss in a room of friends
Placing yourself upon my shoulders
My legs don't have the strength
It’s the first and the last
And every moment shared
Distilled and forgotten
To come back in a dream
A flood!
Rushing, overwhelmed
It’s a possessing
To swallow the soul, whole
Beginning with a bite
At the toes
The body is devoured
In a rush of grief
The body overflows
Pouring out wasted years
No surrender,
no relief.