Tick –Ticktock –Tick tickTicktock –Tick –Ticktock –Tick tickTicktock –Are they hands or are they armsScreaming and screaming,Sound the alarm!Counting up the pastAnd down the futureTied in tight, butThe suture won’t holdI’m lost in the foldChoking on smokeWhere is the fire?I can’t breatheGive me oxygen pleaseGrant my reprieve!I can’t breathe!I can’t […]
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Vitamin B, Vitamin D
Vitamin B, Vitamin DPut it on me, I want to seeLet me tempt, let me teaseI will ease you tonightStart me slow, start me sweetBred-in-the-bone tremors beneathI am afloat, I am in flightDrippin’ in stars, I am the skyDay and night, night and dayDarlin’ don’t play, claim it and sayDay […]
After the Remora
When the remora are doneDevouring detritus as a delicacy,Chewing chum as the choicest cutIn the nutritional void and the stagnation,When the pH and the mechanismsLeave visible lesions,No longer eager for their Rotation in the roster,No longer mistaking proximity and useFor intimacy and reciprocation,When your eyes cloud overAnd your last brilliant […]
Wallpaper
The walls were papered and named a garden.No soil. No water. Nothing to till and seed.Arid brittle flakes.The room a stagnant cage.No bed for real to root in.No nutrients to heal the withered.There are no blooms in dead air.This is where I leave you.-Melissa Donley
Reunion
I found your heart in a dark dusty jarYou had to protect it so long, I’m sorryYou’re shaking again, you aren’t you without itLet me help you put it back inFix it in place one little act at a timeGo slow, breathe deepThere’s no opiate for this reunionHave the tea, […]
Rice and Beans
Simmering rice, each graina swelling promise kept,and steamed windows,veil of vapors betweenour exclusive biomeand the rest of Everything.I’ll wash the beans, darlin’,while the onion crispswith the bell pepper,chambered like a heart.We’ll plant the seeds together.They say the secret is in the saute,but I know it’s in the wayyou honor the […]
All That Is Me
Cut me from the gristle of this world.Boil me up in a tall hot pot.I want to feel the drudge leach from bone and sinew.Steam every injustice from my pores.Cook me down to my concentrated essence.Steep me in a bold flowering tea.I want to drink in all that is me.-Melissa […]
Peaches and Cream
Peaches and creamI gave you marmalade dreamsSticky in the jar the silence clings20/20 vision I couldn’t see the beamsI knocked and I kickedBursting behind every sceneMad with hunger give me a beanA drop what do you meanMy hands can’t feedIf you don’t water the seedBurning violent in the fieldOpen the […]
The Saints Took Up Smoking
A card or a bladeTo finely mince,Separate seed and bud,Pack and roll in paper,Lick and seal,Pinch and twist the ends,Hemostats if clips are too bougie,Or raw pawBetween two fingers,Light up, drag deep, hold,Hold,Hold,Release.When we slaughtered the lamb,And left the flesh to rot,And the coat to mat,And the blood sticky across […]
You Missed the Light Today
Darlin’,you missed the light today,through the shimmy of the leavesand the poise of the daisies,between the swaying shadowson the carpet.Maybe light doesn’t have a sound,but I heard it in the hushing of my mind.I held it in my handsand felt it in my smile.It feels like you, darlin’.It feels like […]