‘cuz we are not in la

don’t say yes
when you mean maybe
don’t say maybe
when you mean no
and if it is really maybe
say so

train of thought

i thought i heard your laugh
behind me, but when i turned
to look at the large glass
windows, sun glaring behind
looming steel buildings that
kept watch like sentries,
i heard only street noise,
bicycle bells, cat calls, screeches
of brakes and cab horns

mellifluous

i like the way you laugh
but i rather love the way you groan

strong

it did not seem so at first glance
how very delicate those cracks
on the surface of your taut flesh
would crumble at the softest touch

you think exposed lines make you weak
so you cover your wants, your needs
but the strength it requires to speak
springs from a place that’s far more deep

it is not despite but because, you see
those lines draw you closer to me

spring haiku

the flower petals
flutter outside my window
white and delicate

absolution

the wet streets offer no salvation
cars streaked with last week’s dirt
the sounds of last night’s sweet elation
have drowned in this morning’s hurt

i offer up to the clouds your arrival
but it dissipates through my fingertips
i’ve thought: i need you for my survival
but it hangs unsaid on my open lips

water has not been a purifier
my tears have done no good
the desert is my sovereign empire
and there alone have i stood

rain

each individual drop
sounds out the
inevitability
of falling

i lay down my
head and feel the
comfort
of coldness

baggage

my breath in concert with the
stirring of this thought
sent to you
on waves of pain to avoid
the customs fees
packaged in regret and tied up
in sorrow.

i have no place to put this memory
already the ghost of you
displaced my defences, put out my
reasons that I hoard in lieu
of time.

yesterday

yesterday
i had trouble
finding the words
there are not enough
to describe the gap between
what i say and what you mean

today
i will not speak
and in my sighs you might
know that every word
i don’t say is for you

meditation

.

we sit in silence as i count your breaths
moving out with each intake of space
which slows and speeds at the slightest touch
>
and only in this pause of time
do i feel the rise and fall of you