for artemis
so here’s the thing
my friend
the world cries & someone
must play the role of bastard
illegitimately renegade, yet tied
and anchored, all steel and weight
sinking slowly
i’m sure you don’t recognize this
wonder,
this miracle that is you & the world
despite furious storms of flame and the undulating waves
we’re stuck on this damn boat
trying to preserve the sail
forever
thank god for sailors
i feel the boards below me cold and damp
for i am tied; coarse ropes twisted under rivets of scars
blossoming rivers of red
velvet
burns and battles fought far from shore
above the ship turns and i peer
through slits in the hull
humming some melody i forgot yesterday
helpless against sail & wind & sea
watching against the tilt & splash
watching
demure walls;
ashen sunbursts
their rough swirls of mind
cutting
scuffed winter mud
the edge
of my seeping, crusted veins
edited:
snipped, collaged
a personal oblivion—
those webs of stolen arteries
torn roadmaps
forgotten tomorrow
art class
you greet me
pressing sweet nothings
into my morning gold
Dawn watches &
imagines
where Night has gone
freckles & smiles & creases
sketched slowly in her stars
in my arms
all cuffed and pretty
beautiful, trouble causing things
sunsets past midnight &
the moon,
looking through our kaleidoscope
a plethora of shattered stars
shards of words against
her dimpled cheeks
crushed purple velvet & our stretched
limbs
contours
of forgotten landscapes
dreamt by picasso & monet
flares of whiskey
caught and swirled
a blur of gradients
watercolors
plunged quickly
shot glasses of curtains
shielding and spilling blue, periwinkle eyes
lifting slowly
a ship in the sky
soaking half-used lotion- in droplets
quarter profiles and small smiles,
deep throws of seas
waves, crested in forgotten words
crinkled papers & phrases & smudged scars
blankets of unknown
carpeting someone else’s mind
mine, wondering
the opposite
china town
she smiles above
can you see it?
i miss these corners of the world
whispered echoes i forgot to pen
beds, sheet
violent blooms of twilight on
scrawled papers
ugly remnants & dreams hung from willows
swaying somewhere past the bitter fog
lime juice & churros & tostadas
flung from golden gate food trucks
rust & emerging decay
screeching along the blade of your ocean
my steps
lost amongst the happenings
children of the wind
kites tangled in redwood bows
tails ripped & sliced & past reach
my jumps and strides falling
to blood and mud
edges of sunlight
shattered
scattering pottery, blades
her mid-afternoon twilights
climbing wild-roses
thorns
wreathing my eyes
two gaping, ethereal windows
peeking from octavia’s chateau
striped swimsuits against the mowed lawn
clouds oblivious to the merciful moon
negotiations with dawn
Inlandia: A Literary Journey 