I’m sorry were having a fight
when things bother me I go quiet
I build things up inside,
they maybe small -
but because there held in so long they sit
and turn my insides into a festering pit
the smallest slight can then become a raging tornado
an uncontrollable reaction
that doesn’t fit the supposed crime
and -
even though I know all this
at the moment I’m still mad
a major disagreement because
of all the little tiffs we never had

When we
first met I didn’t think you were anyone special just
another bloke with blue eyes and testosterone. It was a hot
day I remember that. We drank beer and casually swapped
edited life histories but really I wanted to be alone eyeing
up the musicians through dust clouds of people moving from
tent to tent buzzed by flies odours of pizzas patchouli and sun tans.
All the young ones smoked behind the stages or huddled
together mostly bare flesh and tattoos exchanging tongue studs.

I felt a trickle of warmth
as the frozen part of me thawed
One night of heated passion
soothed years of being clawed

When I think of the early days
none too sure of what to do
I smile at the thought of us
so different, me and you

Lust laid down in the backseat
being only second best
Love grew slowly stronger
passing every test

Time has melted our hearts together
welded the parts real strong
Trials buffing out the rough edges
on days that seemed too long

Bitter streetlight
Sneaks past dusty blinds
Frozen crystal-hard
By cold relentless mourn
Of being alone;

Her softness deep within old quilts
Is missing
While I toss and turn
In twisted sheets
As night lasts into lonely dawn.

There must be others
Out there somewhere
Stuck slow in lonely amber
Waiting for the one
who takes away the solitude,
soothing tired tiny stabs of solitary
Deep into the night,

the house is dark
mom and dad are asleep
and I'm up watching tales of the script
people strangled by unseen hands
on the movie set

afraid and fearful of the unseen hands
I tiptoed through the dark house
pass mom and dad's room back to my bedroom
where my sisters were sleeping quietly
in a regular bed shared by 4 girls looked so far away
from the door where I stood looking for monsters under my bed

A gray cat that I know
out back by the fence
was conversing with an owl in the tree,

"Should the wind start to blow
and I'm not making sense,
I must be asleep, don't bother me!"

And just as he said
the branches did sway,
then the owl began speaking in rhymes;

the cat went towards the shed
an evening fog swallowed day,
in the distance, the clock tower chimes.

Then out the pet door
and falling flat on his face,
came the youngest one of this small clan;

A ship upon my woman waters
I split to bear its weight on me.
It's vessel body sinks into
and I, like open ocean be.

Waves build,
crest,
crash,
against ships that idly pass.
I fold into
I drowned within,
make claim upon the sailor's sins.

Those strong bodied monstrosities disrupting every inch of me,
just sail on through my stormy seas
as I, like open ocean be.

Challenging times
nickels and dimes
Used to be paper
I rustled
feels like I’ve
been hustled
New charges for
this and that
everything plus VAT
there’ll be a tax
on laughter next
won’t be able
to afford to text

hold the fast down
the light town
spreading like a sweet concussion
the echo chamber roam
and the pain wrenched groan

taste your ghost
in the ache
of the shake

falling
in the ruin
like the dust
from the crash

waking
breaking
bones and hearts
souls and kingdom
kind asunder

the torch of shame
burning up the blunders

and you stare into the
pain of heaven
and wonder

Offline. That’s what the message box said.
You told me to wish on your laptop’s time
It was six minutes late
My wish couldn’t have counted
So there should be no harm in telling you now.

I wished for you and for all of you.

Pulling down at the edges of the sky
Wrap your stars as a blanket around you
Let the intense heat and pressure course through
Clear your head.
Let the diamonds fall back to coal.