**

Let the ocean

air settle peace-

fully in the bottom

of my lungs &

breath out some-

thing larger than

myself.

I've always been really good at kissing a man who's mad at me.

The Rat

1.

There’s a gutted

rat a block from my

father’s house two

days before he dies.

We’re out for a walk.

I nearly trip over the

city-fed creature;

it’s death still fresh

enough for the casket,

back-combed grey fur,

vibrant insides trail

a gouge beneath its tail.

I cry, Who pulled the

intestines from that

poor rat’s ass? No, it was

ran over, of ( Read more... )

I walked around, days after the funeral,

with the mud surrounding his grave

still cemented on my boots. Sipping

on flat sympathy I didn’t deserve.

What do you know of

an unfamiliar aunt, or a cousin across the country?

When I say "My father has passed,"

pain projects from their eyes and

bike rides, story times, road trips,
a projection

of what lost ( Read more... )

(Sharon Olds)

The Healers

“When they say, If there are any doctors abroad,

would they make themselves known, I remember when my then

husband would rise, and I would get to be

the one he rose beside. They say now

that it does not work, unless you are equal.

And after those first thirty years,

I was not the one he wanted to rise from

or return to--not I but ( Read more... )

Love Poem

it was the way you muttered under your breath,

something along the lines of

For fuck’s sake

as we watched the glass roll on it’s side,
and the water slowly stream from the table in the tea house

to your lap.

the stinging in my nasals

formed moon-crests of salt water in my bottom eyelids.

did I look fearful?

you stood up, lap dampened, repeated ( Read more... )

I didn't come out unscathed, but I don't hate men.
I don't mistrust men. In fact, there's one I'm completely and unmistakably in love with.
Now, to put my insecurities aside, I'll open up. I'll love with all I got--I'll be strong enough to love again.

Maybe I'll regret it, but maybe I won't.
If I ever get married, it'll be to a writer.
​We just  ( Read more... )

"Ive done something bad."

"No, you're just living life."

He’s sweet, but he’s fucked.
You can pour your heart out until there’s nothing left to keep it pumping,

but he’s still going to be unsure of what to do with it,

emotionally unavailable.

Keep smoking your cigarettes, baby.

Keep your guards up so you’ll never be slighted, stay up top,

Your dominance was sexy, but now I’m just suffocating.

Love is ( Read more... )

At the end of the day, I know how to be by myself, the best.
That's not a bad thing.