Alighieri's Allegory

The day that cured me

was unremarkable;

abstract and sedentary.

I pressed my ear

to your lips

and I swear I heard the wind

cold and sad

whispering fragmented

and fractured

tales of loneliness.

I pressed my ear

to your chest

and I could've sworn I heard the ocean

violently pulsing

and thrashing me

back to shore.

And I’m sad like the wind;

“not today”

isn't the snow

that binds me here.

Cliché

Hackneyed

Egregious

Alone

Trite

are my only names.

All my best thoughts

are floating

above me

and out of reach

with ghosts

I don’t yet have

the courage to meet.

Your atlas

is crooked

and misaligned;

I jizz on your dewy meadow

and today’s forecast

calls for isolated suffocation

with a certainty of overcast

above an open and desolate field.

It was then

that she approached me

and said how handsomely dapper

I was.

But my soul is fractured - 
like the wind -

I replied.

I broke her

with a patented distraction
and quickly crept away.

Shades of Staccato

The bridge

was a tourniquet

broken

pretty you

had trouble crossing.

The south Bronx

to our north

and out of view

the upper east side

still out of focus.

I was strangling

some smoke

triumphantly

near Midtown

but dreams

of the Midwest

had me mystified

estranged

perplexed

and perturbed

drifting listlessly
off the lonely bridge.

She Lied You Blue

This cigarette

is my last drink

under just one

more

exploding sky.

I jumped ship

to a sinking town;

I thought you

among the wreck

misplaced.

It suits you well now.

I skipped town

to a sinking ship –

it’s saddening

it’s maddening

it’s cursed;

betrayal filtrated

over crying ice

for me to swallow whole.

Don’t lose the chocolate

from your charm;

you’re no daisy, darling,

I was once your huckleberry.

Pink Roses II

As I cool off

in the twilight

waiting

for this gridlock

to open up

like the skies

that one night

late

last November,

like the spider

trapped in his own

black self-made

maze

and cannot find

his way back

to his prey,

my canines

are aching

for blood;

I’m snarling

growling

here

here without you –

and you’re the only

only
I need.

When Midnight Drugs Turn Sour

Accept that she

is a syringe

and that you

have a very

serious addiction.

Embers dancing

all around us –

the firestorm

will keep us warm

and we need this now;

no sun

in this cracked

marble sky.

An inevitable cold wind

rising to meet my fingertips

before they whisper

to you;

be it Death

or shadow

I could not tell.

You’re wearing off

and the needle

of your arms is distant

but optical illusions

on the far end of August

and we’ll make

the most of it

until then.

The Boy with Empty Mason Jars

There was nothing out there;

          sky, street, trees.

I looked further

and there was a you

slipping away from a me

to greet me –

a place that existed

only in the furthest

reaches of sleep

and frailty

          and goodbye

where the sunlight

feels colder

the desperation

greater

than winter’s

chilling embrace.

The girl I love

in the front seat

behind the wheel –

my heart

lost

somewhere in my throat forever.

She looks at me

with eyes that long

for something more;

some thing

I’ve never had.

Something she needs to find

on her own.

And then maybe –

          I hoped –

you’d find me

in the other realm

in the other sky

above the blue

above you;

in the other

that I acquired

before you awoke

from the sadness.

I’m the storm

in front of you

you want to chase.

You’re the storm

in front of me

that gets away;

a supercell swirling

in the swaying hail.

And I wish

you could feel me

here;

the suffocating drops

of longing

I can’t keep

from spilling out

of every pore

to my name.

And though that ever-present

shimmer in your eyes

is blinding

there is a sickening past

and a future uncertain

you’re just not willing

to let go of –

to envision –

just yet.

And so these stars

will extinguish

the sun

on this

the coldest day

on earth.

You’ll bury me

in the backyard;

you want to bury me

in your grave –

in the ashes

of a heaven obscure.

Somehow, you’ve been

deflecting all the love

I’ve been throwing

in effervescent cyclones

towards your unseeing eyes.

Your love –

          still forming

cumulonimbus massacres

in spotty crashes –

an unsubstantial rain

and a drought

that has plagued

my aching claws.

I’m losing my strength

while my will remains

bitterly intact;

please touch down –

Juliet Oscar Romeo Delta Alpha November –

on the runway

before the snow

returns…

and so love

is synonymous

with scary dreams

that end

beforethe end.

Contact Binary (W Ursae Majoris)

We’ve been gravitating

towards each other

for lightyears

unbeknownst until

it was too late.

We touch

softly

through spaceless

dark

for the first time.

A supernova

on the event horizon;

we’ll create our own

moving castle

forever howling

into infinity.

Your soul

is fractured

and tired –

let me mend you
with my broken arms.