they cannot lie when you look down, away to the side, avoiding mine they cannot lie when you look straight, an arrow ablaze, lit, unfurling to mine they tell a story tragic or beautiful and i can fall in love or walk the other way because blindness was never my lot

for Morgan & Cypress Hyacinth     Your voice is a shadowy collection of ripped promises, Tattered colors, and emptied echoing rooms Of yet another man who has fled your fierce affection– Your father, your uncle, your nephew, your brother, your friend, That man, that man, and that man—you recount an endless String of faces…

Because I want to know what color you are Unpeeled Underneath the layers and layers of that epidermal organ beneath which you reside   to see the shade of purple in your veins the pulse of red in your arteries the exact trace of gold in your bone marrow, to see the sunburned subterranean of…

I can twist, pull, bend and curve words to sculpt iridescent images and caramel planets; Rearrange syntax I can like collisions of phrases stanzas and rhymes spinning From jab-jab-cross-uppercut across the lips into the very fire of their eyes, Exposing the most hidden stories inside their hearts I can unfurl alphabets on my tongue, spin…

[eagle drafts : one] sleeping eagle couched in your nest high upon the cliff you wait the dawn of a new day dreaming uncharted skies and how the breadth of galaxies would taste on your wings sleeping eagle couched in your nest high upon the cliff you awake   [something fiercer] And I am overcome…

a million sparks fly around me my skin lifts off this flesh this flesh lifts off of me and i am the million sparks spurred by explosion: the flying matter, comets and jets of little lightning bolts lightening the atmosphere; electrifying atoms shoot off the tips of my hair (these are the matters of glory…

[2nd draft] The sun stampedes its rays through your window blinds. It is daylight. You sink further into the mattress, surrounding yourself in the thick cover that lingers an evergreen scent in your nostrils. This is one of those mornings. One of those mornings after; one of those mornings after you battled another thunderstorm that…

You are a key Like a psalm of David Singing open Hidden doors locked For centuries: Hey, you Lovely Ones! The ones set apart Tempered in Fire into A Sweet Righteousness of Joy Awake, sing, dance, live, and burn Let your Delight in The King Overtake all fears and sorrows Let your Love for The…

you see me sun scorched from hustling across city streets for a hot meal and clean laundry, pelted by an assault of winter winds that scald my skin a slab of raw bleeding meat; I wander alone a labyrinth of urban wilderness a camouflaged hideaway hiding galaxies behind carnal construction zones and manicured homes, slipping…