Pho: Poems

Pho Aug 13

The moon spills
its pale ruin
into my veins,
and I carry night
like a sickness
no dawn can cure.

It stains my breath
with winter’s ache,
filling my bones
with the slow collapse
of distant tides.

Even the stars
look away
ashamed to watch
what the dark
has made of me.

Waves

Pho Sep 2023

Waves

they were right when they said grief comes in waves

some waves are like dipping your toes into swirls with the sun kissing your shoulders

others are thunderous, threatening to pull you under the icy swells

they push and pull you

you cling on

waiting for the next break in the tide

Praying the next wave won't be the one to drown you.

We Were Always Ember

Pho Aug 1

We Were Always Ember

We burned
not out of hatred
but hunger.
Not to vanish
but to become
smoke
in the same wind.

What if it Stays

Pho Jul 26

What if it Stays

It knocked
softly
a breath at the door
but I
bolted the windows
and swallowed the key.

It came wearing warmth,
but I mistook it
for fire,
for teeth,
for grief with a new face.

So I fled,
faster than joy
could reach out its hand
afraid it might feel
like home.

What the Stars Forget

Pho Aug 6

What the Stars Forget

I mistook
the shimmer of leaving
for love,
and bled stars
each time a name vanished
into the sky.

The universe does not mourn
its falling things,
neither should I.

But my body still weeps
like it forgot
we are made of the same dust
that disappears.

Where Absence Breathes

Pho Jul 24

Where Absence Breathes

Let me dissolve
like moonlight
leaving the sea
no ache in the tide,
no name in the dark.

Just absence
woven so finely
it feels
like air.

Wish

Pho Nov 2015

Wish

I really wish I
Could see all the things I've done
To you and to me

#haiku

You and Me

Pho Jun 2018

You and Me

Breath, teasing my neck
Hair curling
Curling like my toes

Fingers, tracing my skin
Playing notes
Notes to a secret ballad

Lips, caressing my cheek
Wet and silly
Like a rainy spring day

You laying by me
Sleep now darling
It's you and me

#love

— The End —