January 1, 2022

A portrait recovered from the depths

She sits in a small lamplit room drinking lemon tea and experiencing herself. The gears in her watch are imperceptible until her wrist catches just the right angle and the tiny industry inside starts sparkling and the air around the chronology turns electric. Then, the wrist slowly drops and time becomes diluted by the ongoings around her.

She breathes and each splash of oxygen alights the corridors of her lungs within the stunning darkness of her chest. Her cells hurry along their endless superhighways about her body.

Nothing about her appearance would suggest she’s anything other than the way in which she wants to be perceived. A great crest of wood bark hair spills to contour her face, forming the shallow entrance to a cave measured in topographical layers that ripple from river canyon lips.

Spread across her eyes are ancient ruins sprung to life by ritual. Spirits pirouette grooves into her irises before slipping over the edge into placid pools of everything she has ever known.

There always is this apprehension,” she says with the confidence of an expert and the negligence of a narcissist. Confidence and dread are two hands of the same clock that regularly, occasionally intersect. And as the clock strikes half six, it is decided that she will go deeper. She is eager to meet herself.

How are you, sweetheart?” she asks with unrelenting curiosity. There is no answer back but an increased magnetism and palpable rise in energy shared between their internal cores. Her gaze is a single hard drum strike sustained indefinitely. Her warmth is a safe house. No amount of gravity can ground her yearning. She is the chorus of life.

Colors absorb into her skin and release as billowing plumes of sunshine from her smile. On the verge of drowning, ever deeper, an aquatic missile descending slowly and smoothly, her toes pierce through a strange bubble, followed by her ankles, knees, and hips until she falls through completely and starts gasping and drinking in air in this sudden new world just as she had when introduced to the world at the surface.

The first seconds of existence relapse now in this moment, but with the bundled wisdom of a former life that now sits somewhere tightly wound around a synapse. She looks around with wonder and then tilts her head toward the crest of the sphere from whence she’d fallen. It’s both impossibly high and so incredibly close she could touch it.

She breaks the illusion with a curious finger pointed toward the threshold and it slides back through into the cold depths. She takes the deepest breath and sighs, sending shimmering byproduct of spent exhaustion through and out of her system.

With a flutter of blinks, the world around her manifests as the same she’d known, yet brighter.

October 17, 2021

Insincere separation

On a date tonight with the woman inside my heart
just beneath the scruff, who shines through with drops of vigor
like light pressed aback a battered beach glass
who was once clear, then turbulent,
then permitted to be clear again

He asked her to go tonight and she agreed it would be nice if
and if she could hide in his periphery as a lock or three of spiraled hair

They ordered without disagreement and wished being together was as simple

They’d sing together as they walked, and she would pull seas of eyes inward
as he wiped off the mist with the brush of his broom lip
so as to sail more assuredly home
toward temporary, salient, silly, secret, and insincere separation

Poetry
July 5, 2021

Nothing

Spiked space-quality wriggle. Rum tummy runner wrecks the deck and rubs the nub not wittingly with moon powder. Spiraling springtime bed spread butter nut nick tick tread. Socket singer harmonica hum bungalow bigger than life loads up on talcum Tuesdays with the buffalo bingo parlor punk off finger pork. Mojave crave craze squelch portal lampshade rust belt cigar box scrabble limb breath breeze piano key turquoise down drilling Clorox crown dancing black hole blooming poppy possum. Puppy child merengue mix pajama polygon binocular box car mental math oxycontin crawler kiss cool mountain mogul. Capstone checkers belly button brawl Venus piglet pylon light zap quick trap book melon piccolo porn coffee cardboard cannon knob canyon crater pounds per square fried rice ranger danger. Sound bleed cat nap soft trap door trickle metamorphosis pickax power outlet. Zionistic leeward chart drip dangle dingo leather belt sonata dark mango strikethrough fern felt pipe ticker tape. Anime handlebar hang glide present day sand dune expert handbook sale price poplar armor crave counting error max turnstile contortionist popsicle tumor treason tickler sick back nickel crumble cake. Memorization snake shower macro port walnut cut scribble fun fat ramifications worksheet silhouette sunshine suck volumetric oblong oolong ooze beaker breaker banjo bongo Mongolian marmalade reason. Help lector proctor major asterisk margin petroleum mitochondria oatmeal motor gateway deep sea microphone pamphlet chalet abstain creation horticulture potluck hatchback steam pain soft rain woodblock sweatshirt supernova. Tremolo Vincent Victor vector momentum starboard blue fork plan pitch forward drum kit assembly staircase turn hit flash batch cram charge nook hexadecimal mesh berry travel scorpion polka dot folk frenulum. Movie crack casino salmon smile getaway gargle stretch tripod transmogrification. Godless cuisine some shoreline caper fish egg frenzy fuzzy jealousy jam pack cordless parachute aspirational seminal charade meeting corn molasses bandana abacus dirt smack mystery green horizon billion postcard asphalt jumping twisting Turkish. Screwdriver nail polish flavor meadow developer vodka stencil harpist trapezoid latch penultimate climax ascension grandiose chicken wrinkle graphite halogen neck creek mattress electron badminton dissolve presentation fiberoptic topographic cork gold salt grit for sale undertaking inquisition acquisition position situation. Gravity poison bitter butter batter brittle little middle piano punch. Enjoy engorge release realize theory think twin mink pink tank cartographer gelatin can milk copy freckle sip. Listen liquefaction peruse poke cave cerulean something or other. Simple supple Donatello pitter patter syrup sauce eject yes test team up table stake grapple juice juggle naught nap crack tap. Camouflage best boy beret sugar swagger sinkhole psychosis squeeze trampoline cold magma miraculous expedition tent dweller heart cream. Sleep propulsion watermelon ming tot typeface nipple extradite superfluous super fluid formation automation machination zoological tart trooper. Snow bug lock skinny grapple cliff flower front international aluminum craft cookie swizzle master stick off switch trick six hundred turbine float fraternal vortex latex triangle slip touch torch. Gramophone monkey ash tray echo suitcase pancake panty pantry resume river redact rodeo horn boom boring bang bringer ring wringer lap mannequin flour emotion manufacture mental zinger letter bender breakthrough backfire enclave.