Push!

Compress!

Push,
Push
Push.

It will be over soon.
The task will be done.
Your eyes will open
breath will happen.
Color returns.

Push again,
again
again!

I hope.
Pray even,
for the moment to end,
and life to commence.

grim! grim! grim!
why don't you learn
to dip a cactus and make it bloom.

to whittle away the hours in a closed
box.

too timid to bundle or unwrap
I keep guessing,
but not for money at all.

time capsule

Raspberries in January in Portland
Where did you come from, juicy little jewels?
You're so sweetly out of place
Confused in fact,
A little shadowy
UNSURE OF THE WHOLE SITUATION??

like a cryogenic time traveler!
waking up on the same street
to find his wife an old woman
his children cosmonauts
his house
a floating bubble

Cubes In The Sink

Rusty stomach at the bilious age,

rancorous sludge for delight taken when and where.

Rusty whims greedily balmed.

Open eyes, shoulder wedged up beneath the fat,

wrinkling it over the chocks, and away.

Ramona

Please let my father keep his teeth all his years
so that I might never have to see him
gum jawed and slack in the street.

ANYTHING FOR FEELINGS

to be floated

like a buoy

on a dead sea

for a boy

feelings so strong

they throw me

over a shoulder

pull me in

a death grip

a cork pierced and swiveled

from a vintage bottle

feelings to stir me

like a wooden spoon

in a cake batter

parasite feelings

feed on my proteins

the simple sugars I hoard

between cells

ensuring abundance

multiplying by methods

no human could emulate

these feelings

slide into my neurons

and whisper the thing

I want to hear or

the very thing I swore

up down and around

I would never tell myself

regardless I lure them

entice them, beg them

onboard and they come

hungry for me

headache

i live with my boyfriend

i never

want

to hear

this

said

by anyone

ever

again

but i will hear it

again

and i will smile

and pretend that everything

is

just

fine

perpetual working relationship

sun bored, arm to chest fold, to buy something

Holiday sale

Before Christmas
I went to the holiday craft fair
to find gifts for my family
I made a mistake
and went by myself

There was no one to save me
from the aggressive salesmen
No one to tell me no

So I bought some
Dead Sea salts for mom
a bracelet and lotion too
and fancy salsa for dad

then after christmas
I saw everything in stores and online
for much cheaper
and was not surprised at all

SOME DAYS ARE CEREMONIES

Some days are ceremonies

I cut onions for all the boys, women,men, and girls

For Ian who would have danced for the sun, the sun, the Mayans

For Matt waiting for snow and thinking on my behalf

For the cars and cats and grandmothers

For the man who cooked onions last nightand every night, making bachelor meals
for company

And for the rainbow women folding themselves into tiny cascades 
of pain and pleasure
beneath the kitchen sink.