Red Owned

You are known, you know

I mistook you for royalty.

As if, no dime was ever dropped,

to temporarily immortalize you.

But you're decked

in nothing but a lot of

soft, crisp cotton and

one big, dangling pearl.

You have my apologies.

So many have said so much about you

I’d lend your glare for them, but

Whenever I look in the mirror, I stop.

For one second, then a few.

My mouth opens slightly,

and every time, my teeth show.

On its own,

my tongue never tries to hide them

Why is a mouth red inside?

Visual Image Used: Girl With a Pearl Ear-Ring by Johannes Vermeer. Created around the mid 1600s.

Sinner

There's a wind blowing towards the North

and the leaves are aware

a tale begging for insinuation

sets forth cog wheels, circling in

rhythm perfection

intoxicated by half a promise

the lovers dance and revolve,

come rain come hell

come macabre upon their facade

come adultery, come idealism

come real life, come real love.

Pyre Green

the smell of cigarette smoke
likes to follow me, can't leave me
it contorts my lies and wrings them
and knuckles knead and knead them
until the diaphragm hurts

thoracic cavity
cavity -
thoracic
grey ash flies along the night
smoked black
gummy tar
the need, the want
the need not to not want

it follows me
it sticks to me
it looks me in the eye so that I should not sleep
it speaks into my mind so that I should not think
it speaks of you, of
how you can already see
someone else in my skin

Of fairness

a poem of little worth is written
by the poet who refuses to
feel everything that they expressed


a poem of little worth is written
about someone who has not earned
the glory of being a muse


a poem of value
should only be born from
something strong
like moon light
like summer fruit
like anger, like hate
like euphoria.

The Shining

Confused and befuddled, a night arrives
Maybe it’s a new seat you occupy when you look at the moon, 
Maybe it’s the new person in your house
Maybe it’s the lack thereof.
Times when little things that a lot of people have always said
Finally coalesce
And make sense, a horrible amount of sense.
The night when hope disappears


But because truthfully, it was never there at all.

Black Eye

Try to breathe quietly, and you'll remember
that it was all
only what they thought they should say.

Blink again and see
few have seen you
without reference to
experiences and logic and observations

Breathe again and forgive.
With time
They'll become a little bit wiser for it.

Glitterati

                And then I remembered

Back straight

Chin up

rising hand, soaring feet.

dainty waist flies up

The feathery skirt sobered down.

Translucent silhouette.

Ever eye, mind lights

The masses rise loudly,

they sparkle and cheer. Now

twirl the air, land on your feet.

Note: The line "Ever eye, mind lights" is from 'Ghazal' by Marylin Hacker.