Writer | Copy Editor
Golden neck, jeweled flash,
such dirt and religious plots.
The sweeping sky, look loft and about,
blue and feathered white.
Yours, the knitted brow, kissed by cool green stalks,
and I, floating as in the doldrums, the endless spin of nowhere.
Water laps, but not a bird cries, or a step makes.They’re coming, love, they’re coming.
Run the black mud and rattle the heart,
a kiss in the dark.
Golden loop, dusty curls,
steel and swords and death.
Rolling, raspy tongue,
soaked in salty sweet, barreled amber.
Whiskey’d warrior; worn weaves,
and soft, the pelted shoulder.
Such severe darkness,
the lamenting and guarded notions; all that red-rimmed hazel.
Rough touch in the candle flicker,
fingertips and waists and teeth.
Upturned humor, scents of green and airy spaces.
Lead her over highlands and to loughs and within cold, lonely, and ancient stone.
Tartan soldier, bark your cry,
and into the mist and snow.
Oil slick and incense putrid;
cassock folds flutter aside the heel.
Blue wanting lingers in frigid mist,
and snow, soft secrets, muted confessions.
Throat, pull the white and to the wind,
lips touch, brush, and push.
Hearts, blushing heat, and palms,
spying stars, the world’s eyes.
Spiteful ritual, crumbling ruins, cracking paint.
Careless moments conjured by glances and smiles and trepidatious fingers.
Summon God, Father, if you must;
prayer lost to begging — unraveling devotion.
Stop talking.
Breeze against my neck, my hair.
Spells and chants and incantations and all.
Cloth folded over cloth — careful, dutiful.
Guardian, watch me.
Shoulder blades and back — smooth relish of the breast.
Keep yourself lonely and fading.
Pretend me away and chant words,
but nakedness in the front,
a private love song.
Quiver and dance, forest —
Clapping leaves and tinkling moisture.
Sun beams shouldering through autumn branches,
and colors warm like tightly woven threads.
The trudge of silver rings, leader, and a nervous, guilty heart.
Toes hold fast the sinking soil,
blue meets green and beg apology and longing.
These bodies, furnaces of worn, complex expectation and doubt –
draw near the silk and cotton.
A gentle ripple — snowflake voices, anxious lips, calloused hands, the singing sword.
Cover us, forest, and quiver and dance.
Up and up to the sky’s reach,
anxious, trepidatious hearts roll.Expectation.
Blue and pink cotton candy sphere.
Twilight; intimate whispers; yearning expression.
The bustle so selfish and we …
we cling to the precariousness of a sun-warmed moon;
wrong and right.Choices.
Stranger, I’m nothing but age and wear,
and you, the kiss so essential of resurrection.
Flightless feathers, hollow words,
blending in dread and florescent burning.
Hope’s sky; freedom,
but gray, ominous lookout;
glass in the haze and reflection.
So bright, the sudden stop, alone in the green.
Shift the chair’s wheels, such a discomfort,
and laughter.
Died, each,
one open, one empty heart.
Once entire,
petal on the waves.
I drift, singular,
and the sun and the moons —
lift and fall.
Forever knocks — the rip and tear.
Mourning wounds in glad years —
all the good days and goodbyes.
Empty heart and yearning,
plead for the tidal shift, and you,
my other piece to miss.
Straighten the collar; accept the seat,
clasped hands, dark wood, damp ink.
Master of the course,
so uncertain, so wild the eye.
Hopes for fortune and light,
but suffering in the endless black.
Behind the curtain, a quick pulse,
and fingers in curls and laces.
Wait, the harpoon’s song, and so much red —
splintering wood, rushing salt.
But take her, in buttons and breeches,
in silk and wool.
Three corners in position.
The harbor without mercy sends her son.
Whiskey over whiskey,
salty sprays.
Tiptoe the mundane,
and boots crush crabgrass.
Come into my view, my hopes,
that slow march, ranger,
and squint back the early sun.Winds rush, fall breeze — winter’s warning.
Swirl the glass, molecules stir and breathe.
Heart beats the moment; waves thrum.
Vibrate the gentle meaning of lips, sweet ghost —
but what a day where the light shines home,
dancing in the world’s glass.
Whiskey over whiskey,
red embers.