night subway ride

I’m listening to Earth, Wind and Fire
On the subway and the music is loud
And I lift my hood and take off my hat because it’s hot.

I stand slack against the door.
Casual. Western, even. I wonder
what’s going on for me and then the song changes
To a David Guerra song and it’s true,
I’m listening to a Spotify playlist called
“Songs to Sing in the Shower.”

It’s been my second favorite playlist this week.

I think we’re all just jostling into one another,
Bumping cartilage and viscous in ways we don’t understand,
All being much sweeter than we know.
All showing up as God for one another.
And not really knowing what that means never
Felt so like taking my clothes off, and slowly
Walking into an Appalachian mountain lake at night.

I don’t know what I’m doing, but sometimes,
Neither does the rock next to the buckled little tree
During a blushing dusk.
Neither do you.

It’s worth getting to know more about, I think.
Supremely worth it. So when you enter the room
in my mind, it feels destined for me to realize that these are the days
When I’d write more poetry.

Untitled, Spring 2017

There's a glass of water sitting in 

jackknife daylight on the piano. 

The print of lips faint like a fossil or 

Water damage along the rim. 

The trace of a thought: we're just in our

Bodies, kicking like someone who might be swimming 

For their life.

Flight UA 1505

I’m miles above where they wait for life to come
Take them anywhere else,
Days behind on bills and thoughts about
how different the packages god sends us
look than our dreams,
Seconds into feeling the weight of the warm sand
You’re shoveled onto my chest.

I feel half-born, legs sticking out at odd angles, but
Like I inhaled something and felt my bloodstreams loosen
For the first time with more of me.

I reflect on the fact that I’ve never fought for something before.
Never cut my hair.
Never battled like Sampson with blood
In my mouth and on my name.

Which makes me think - you know when the universe is a black hole and you see
Your own dark matter pupil looking back at you from the eye
Of our storms?

Yeah.

I guess I wanted to care like ivy growing up the your wall,
over the years.

Instead, I ended up sitting next to a girl on the plane who is bipolar
Who has not eaten for months at a time
Who once spent all her savings while blacked out in mania
Who has an arch nemesis
Who had a man stalk her across two continents
Who smiled and laughed and showed me a way to lay
Worries down like I did your body last night, when it felt so good
To be alive