Valerie

Your name slips from my lips
Caressingly sweet
Urgently beautiful
Like artificial snow
In the middle of summer

I can’t help but taste it
To twirl it around my tongue
To breathe it in like smoke
Then slowly let it out
Addicted to this rush

This whisper eases out
Filling the silences
With undulating song
An irresponsible kiss
In between consequences

Your name finds me out
Seeks me in dark spaces
Illuminates my craving
As surely as a spotlight
Over the whole of you

This word cool and clear
Indiscriminately sultry
A perfect definition
For this absolute love
Captured, hieroglyph smooth

Your name brings me solace
In a world of uncertainty
It’s a coiled spring
Ready to unfurl, to explode,
To bring me back to you

It’s a shame you don’t
answer to it anymore.

Torrid

This heat shimmers
Cool to the touch
Yet fiery smooth
Leaving no trace
Save an alabaster sheen
On this ebony stone
A midnight reprieve
From cooling skin
After this climax
Brain numb from exertion
This out of body thing
Capturing my fancy
Leaves me wanting more
But this vision clears
All moon radiance
Shining in my eyes
A crashing wave
Falling down around me
This present drowning
Concussive in its depths
Taking off the sheen
Of yesterday’s polish
Stripped to my bare essence
I shiver in the lights
Of this dark night
With no one in my arms.

Falling

Falling in love is an ending
A convoluted engagement
An agreement signed in blood
Pumping through besotted hearts
A questioning of ideologies
Couched in candy and rhyme
And money wrapped in gray
It’s the niceties that decay
The dreams from which we wake
Our best selves comes out to play
But falling has consequences
That screech at the bottom
The feelings behind the words
Behind the pleasantries we hide
Like electric mice inside walls
Waiting to recharge
Needing a reason for this pain
For these bloody knees that ache
For this foolish, bloody heart
So strong and yet so tender
An incredibly vulnerable thing
Given way too much authority
To turn a fickle head
Transforming infatuation into tears
A spontaneous combustion of sorts
A chemical anarchy
Exploding into a fractured reality
Where honesty takes the place of love
And we stop running to stand still
Because falling is just like flying
If you never touch the ground.

Like Rice

She says I don’t understand
That this innocence fades in time
Leaving scars and reticence
Continuity on the run
These tears run down her face
Like so much acid rain
And I can’t help but sympathize
The apathy run cold in my veins
Straining against fetid bonds
Realization rising in the East
Shaking me apart like rice
Then putting me together again
All black and blue and brown
These scars from winter’s frost
Lasting well into July
And she turns away from me in bed
Body rigid in the fading twilight
Sides shaking with repressed sighs
Finally come out to play
I pretend everything is fine
But I live in a cartoon world
Where nothing is ever permanent
Not even the concept of love
These pieces scatter to each side
Small and inconsequential
As her body continues to vibrate
And I hesitate to comfort her
Because we have always pretended
That we are whole or in part
There is no bridge between the two
Trapped in our own philosophies
Of these little white lies
That resemble this scattered rice
Brown, and white, and misunderstood

Lost in the reality of her guilt
She offers what she could never give
And waits for my reply.