Saturday, May 31, 2014

151/365 : i've missed you, mom



your skin, soft like
clouds, like fallen cotton
floating, fluffing
humming lucy loo lullabies
straight into my shaken veins, my hardened earth
straight into my softness

Friday, May 30, 2014

150/365 : you, who has left your courage in the sky


i need you to hear
the harrowing scream of our
silence. i need you
to listen with your penis
listen with your sadness
listen with all your bodily might.
call home your king.
call home your courage.
we must rebuild our empire.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

149/365 : the darkness


if i had the time
to die
for say, just
five minutes
right now
i'd do it

fall flat on my face
feel my spirit
like grace
float over, over the sky's soft blue
over the crescent moon, over the the threat
of all the things i'll never do

i'd undo the spell
of embodying hell
and remember
the darkness
of god

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

148/365 : don't do it


i don't want to talk about this,
but it's your birthday on facebook
so i click on your picture
you, and your little boy
whose face is square and edgy like yours
and i can't help but remember
that time we took your four-wheeler
out for a ride under the dazzling sky
of howard county country air
me, in my 12-year-old fashion statement:
overalls and shoe-string tank-top
you, in your hick uniform:
blue wranglers, white jockey tee
and me, silent as the night
when you unzipped the copper
pushed me down by the shoulders
and chuckled, adolescent and smug,
you know what to do
now do it

i see your boy, he's four years old
and i can't help but hope that somehow
you've grown out of your adolescence
that somehow he learns to touch shoulders
with a tickle so insatiable
with a love so relatable
that he never has to say,
now do it

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

147/365 : i was 13

dear mom,

where were you
when i told you
i got raped
by a man
twice my age?
when i told you
when i told you
when i told you


Monday, May 26, 2014

146/365 : If Your Sexuality Scares You



treat it like a child
seeking sweet asylum from pronouncing words right
or choosing the right ones at all

let yourself, instead, get better at tumbling
fumbling for the truth of 
what turns you hot and happy

let yourself get messy--
you don't have to do so in public
not even with others quite yet

you can start in your bedroom
all alone with the hum of
your most tantalizing music

you can start by letting 
one honest wish 
fall out of your lips

you can start
by imagining
you're meant for it

that you wouldn't want it
if it didn't want you back
and mutuality is heaven in the sack

if you've gotten this far
and you're ready for more
you can dress yourself as a lover

in the colors and underwear
of a sensual lust affair
with your most turned-on libido

begin with your own recalibrating
unlock the knob of
your turn table

you won't be able to make all the music alone
but, at first, you can bang the drums
let them know you're ready

and then, with the steady rhythm
of your song, bouncing off you
like a love charm

you will draw near
your most resonant
peers

if this scares you 
because you already have a mate
or you think it might change your fate

'cuz perhaps you like your own gender
or you wanna be
a gender bender

or you might have to stop pretending
that whatever ways you've been spending
your sensuality, is true

because you're afraid 
this might cause conflict
or worse, that you're not worth it

because you think there's not possibly
someone else who's meant to be
licking you from head-to-toe

meeting you in your favorite flow
because you think you're not allowed
to have a favorite

because maybe all of this lovin'
would require you
to melt more

i say to you this:
MELT

become like caramel cream
deep dazzle finger-licking
sweet saucified surrender

even if there's nowhere to put it
no a la mode to match
your flow, quite yet

it will still feel better than 
cold and chewy
scared and unwilling to soften

boxed and packaged inside 
a crafted image of love
i say to you this:

show up for us 
as you most long to be
let us receive you

like a born-again-virgin
paint us your fantasy
of earnest perfection

we'll get it wrong
undoubtedly
so will you

but naming and claiming will be 
the beginning of knowing 
your pleasure is not to be feared

you are not weird for 
wanting connection
you are sexy

you are not wrong for
wanting bodily belonging
you are ready

to be met in your aliveness
wet and desirous 
or intimate quietness

you are ready
to be met
all the way

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Saturday, May 24, 2014

144/365 : Hustle Not Hurry



you don't have to hurry
hustle and hurry are not the same thing

you can hustle the way you do
to fetch the ball when it's gone
beyond the goal and the coach
hollers, "hustle!"

with love in your heart
you still just jog
drag your feet a little
maybe even skip

you know you have time
that it's not gonna kill you or
anyone else
to not sprint
to not expend all of your energy
on the tiny in-betweens
of skill drills and whistles

you can hustle without hurry
without fear of losing your spot
you can hustle with heart
with attitude, easy and true
that says, "okay! i'm goin'!
chuggin' along!"

you can hustle like it's a game
and we're actually playing together
and it's actually better
when you're happy
and not sour
when you know we're staying together
when you know we want you
to have fun on this team


Friday, May 23, 2014

143/365 : the definition of magic



do you remember the first time
you heard Joanna Newsom croon?

i do. i was eighteen
and my boyfriend made me
a mix cd called "songs for this"

"your skin is something
that i stir into my tea,"*
she wailed to me

and i knew what she meant
without ever having
experienced it

this, i'm learning is
the definition of magic:
from the stars and the clouds,
the universal gets pulled down

and we can suddenly
taste the poetry


*

Thursday, May 22, 2014

142/365 : "over time i've lost my fire"



last night we didn't fuck
hardly went past second base

laid coiled in the cool covers
of three-months-in

listened to Joni Mitchell sing
the song about the midway

listened to stories about
back in the day

when we thought
we could build forever

listened to our hearts beat humble
knowing better

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

141/365 : e coli

the city sidewalk hums
with trash-cans
thunder-boxes of e coli
rolling, dehydration
trolling like stumbling
drunks, no coffee
what will we do
when the news doesn't
change, doesn't say
we were just being
sensitive?

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

140/365 : culling in



these tea leaves come from the very top of a tree
somewhere in Southeast Asia
somewhere where tress have grown for five hundred years,
small hands culling in their magic

and something about this--
this laying in bed, bath-soaked, naked
playing old Leonard Cohen
like not a single thing is happening
this Friday night in the city of Portland--
something about this, also
feels like culling in


Monday, May 19, 2014

139/365 : a poem, hand-written, to be put in a 5x7 frame, that you can keep forever as a reminder of what this is



maybe one day the palms of my hands
will be strong with age
but still soft with sensitivity
like yours

maybe i'll look down
at the forest of lines
impossible to read by sight
and remember
the way you used to tell me
to smell your kisses
panting ceaseless yeses
nose hungry, nestled into my chest
whispering, what a woman
what a woman you are, rachael

maybe i'll remember the taste
of always wanting you to stay
and the love
that had no problem
letting you go,

only that empty-home feeling
which happens
when we trust ourselves
to hold all of love's power
in young humble hands

Sunday, May 18, 2014

138/365 : chill the fuck out



jodi told me to write a poem
about how he unwinds my mind
with his fucking
late at night
after we're both spent on speaking
and we're both ready for dreaming
but i, in my quick-aired thinking
cannot slow the wind
i, i need rain
heaping hailing
drenching tsunamis of his body
breaking into mine
in order to finally find
the still breath
the ancient yes
the blue tenderness
of quiet
that's always waiting
like a backdrop prayer
like the monks in their soul lairs
like the devotion
of nothingness
and love
and pigeons in the downtown city square
always around somewhere
pecking, waiting, wondering
when we'll chill the fuck out
and feed them

Saturday, May 17, 2014

137/365 : slow down



heart rushing wild
oceans of mistrust
teeming, screaming
wishing a way out

there is no way out

there is sinking down
becoming deep blue truth
unaware of speed

a crash so at peace
you'd think it
a gentle breeze
if your mind knew better
than frantic senile words

Thursday, May 15, 2014

135/365 : wrinkles


i watch them gather
like whole villages
of sunny sunday afternoons
with nothing to do
but lay by the river
and wonder
how a sun so far away
could feed this
holy day, and
still, we bother
with the way
our skin gathers, and
still, we fill our hours
with fear

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

134/365 : trying



i'm back to writing crappy poems.

i knew this day would come.

i have a pitcher of
ice cube excuses
assam tea, cooled but ruthless
staring me cold in the eye
wondering why i'm not
digging deep
why i need this
sour-sweet lemon squeezed
into the center of everything
in order to feel anything
tingle
at all.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

133/365 : flutter



do you think the sky is immovable?
like the way we see color
as just color
dense and true
dry and undoable

have you not
been a dragonfly?
eyes keen on cutting
baby blue like an ocean
that moves for you
when you flutter with
enough hunger

do you believe
in your own wild
weedy wings
to take you
through the magic
of possibility come alive?

or do you buy into the
puppeted strings
and small dreams
of those who need to know how
before seeking the wow?


Monday, May 12, 2014

132/365 : indulge



while breathing,
I like to lick
my fingers wet
and stroke
the forgotten dust

such grand
indulgences
wait
on the wooden
table


Sunday, May 11, 2014

131/365 : Cylindrical



You, Boom Boom
Red-Blush Truth
(under chest, still
traced with youth)

You, True Blue Eyes
(cylindrical, stacked
curious, on track)

You, Train
You, Choo Choo
You, Non-Renewable
Sure and Able
(so insatiable)
Engine

I am here
to ride You


Saturday, May 10, 2014

130/365 : The Waypost



Fleet Foxes croons
Mykonos on the stereo,
I'm bare-soled over the
couch's elbow,
it's 90 degrees
on May 14th,
the city is dressed
in delirium and swimsuits,
Antonio is stoned
behind The Waypost,
his birthday was yesterday
he turned 33,
the year of eternity
so says the Muslims,
lounging, I'm wondering
where the old folk go,
for drinks and joints
and to get to the point,
my old man Chris
came in my bed last night,
he's 57 and
basking in the Heaven,
of my eternally
youthful delight,
my hair loosens free
curls kissing my cheeks,
like little legs
pushing off a tree,
like a tire swing
under my rim,
i am free and heavenly
laughing sweetly,
just wanting someone
to laugh with me.


Friday, May 9, 2014

129/365 : steam



there must be
something gathering
in the earth
like sweat

ready to extend
outside cozy--
become known
out there

there must be
a lover
for which
the air turns wet

Thursday, May 8, 2014

128/365 : telephone wire



if i were alive then
and you were blowing me kisses
from the window
down the block

i'd sneak down the
creaking stairs
and reach into
my mom's wicker wears

pull the bright yellow yarn
from the batch
rush back to my bedroom
and throw it to you

like a magic kite
no need for wind
just us and trust
that love is as simple as this:

a strand in the night
two cups on either side
placed right to our ears
so we can actually hear
the grunts, the giggles,
the happy patter
in our small strong hearts

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

127/365 : scribbled on card stock, found under my desk



love is pulling the car
off the road
walking around
pulling me out
holding me without a sound
because words are no cure
for emptiness

love is shouting my name
into the wind
four times over
promising something bigger
than names
or sky

love is asking for my eyes
when i'd rather hide--

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

126/365 : autonomy kept the cat alive


tonight i saw two
black cats, back to back, prowling
the streets like tumble
weeds, fast and dancing, fear-free
white chests, aglow and alone



~~~

this poem is a tanka.

Monday, May 5, 2014

125/365 : i am the goddess.


tonight i saw two
eyes, brown kindness, side by side
squinting, i love you,
through salty sweat dripping in.
gorgeous you, hummed the goddess.





~~~

this poem is a tanka.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

124/365 : Of Roses And Rhymes



this city is a garden
where all the sensitive seeds
furrow deep in the dark
wet wonderland of winter

just waiting for the sun
to hit them up
like a spotlight
saying, go, go honey

it's your turn
sing us your
gorgeous moody truth
sing us your news

sing us anything
true, we'll treasure you
we'll pick you
we'll put you in our

blue glass vase
from the vintage glass case
we'll study your face
for heartbreak and

saving grace
we'll smell your exhale
as your lips tell all the
secret trails of who you

never thought you'd
bloom into

this city will water you
through and through
'til you can't undo
the nourishment

Saturday, May 3, 2014

123/365 : simple math




i'm the quickest breaker-upper on earth
who cares that i just put a hundred dollars worth of
lingerie on my credit card

this heart has no bail outs
or payment plans
it requires careful book keeping
and no close calls

not that i'm stingy with my love
just that when you call
i wanna feel all of your yes
in your silent simple breath

i wanna build
a song machine outta the
beats of our hearts and it's
not gonna sound too good
if we're too far apart

Friday, May 2, 2014

122/365 : who i find out there



i hate the way love sweeps me away
into a dustpan of forgetting

forgetting to grocery shop
forgetting to sleep
forgetting to see my best friend perform
forgetting to write my poems

i don't forget to pray when i'm all alone all day
i don't forget to stand strong in the circle
and sing for the fallen
and dance with the weathered
'til we all feel a bit better

no, when i'm single
i always remember my prayers

until love marches in, wet
and then i always forget
how temperamental
joy can be

how much i still need
to stand like a tree
palms of my feet facing upward
breathing stalwart
like i could hold the pose forever

remembering that there is never another
who can fill my belly's hunger
who can close my glow-glazed eyes
who can show up in this body, in this time
who can write the story i want to live inside

remembering
it's not about
who i find
out there


Thursday, May 1, 2014

121/365 : You Ain't Alone


Is this enough?
To feel pleasure on a Thursday morning in May?

To be 27 and touching myself?
OMing after dancing to

You Ain't Alone
by the Alabama Shakes?

There is a howling dog
outside my window

a wailing ferral hound.

I don't know what she's thinking
but I feel the same way.