Be my innkeeper
Light up the no to my vacancy sign
When I’ve had a long day
Let it flicker like the neon
Sign at the ABC store a few blocks away
And when the next day starts turn it off again
And let in those who’ve had worse days than me
Rest their heads and let them be
Remind me of myself and who I am when
You are my only tenant
But don’t let me forget that while
Yours is the most important
I always have a room for more.

An ode to the letter y
A letter that holds a word
A fork in the road
A wishbone
The beginning of a question
The break of a tree
The arch of fingers signing I love you
Or rock on
An empty martini glass
An empty valley
One letter full of possibilities.

I used to know someone
A someone with a funny neck tie
One that was white
And flipped the wrong way around his shirt
He told me he knew what hell was
He said to me, “hell is the end of the world
When the meteor, or the bomb,
Or the death of compassion
Hits our planet
And you alone survive, standing there
Naked and raw and scared
Senses impaired
Burnt and singed hair
You were the only one spared
But then, then you see someone else
And as they walk towards you
You see it’s you, the you you
Could have become if you didn’t give up
And in this other version of you all you see
Are the reflections of your mistakes and
Chances you didn’t take
And you sit there for eternity
Faced with who you should have been.

With no secretes and with no lies
I love you
Although we have had so many words
Talked about so many things
These are the words that matter
And maybe the other things we say to each other
Aren't so important after all
But that we are alive together and as
Present for each other as best we can be
That’s what counts
Every finger you laced in between mine
Even when they were sweaty with nerves
Every touch of my hand to your shoulder
Even when you already had so much rested on them
Every word we spoke to each other when we said I love you
With no secretes and with no lies.

I never thought of our goodbyes
I didn’t think they would happen
Or if I did I would have thought
Them more as see you tomorrows
Not actual goodbyes
Remember the time when we drank
And sang of our lives forever being lived together
We were living together at that time
And we agreed that time is the only thing
Other than each other that we should value
We live in time, and that’s what we should be saving
We should be putting it under our mattress
And in our piggy banks
See, our lives live behind our credit cards and folded dollar bills
And we waste so many minutes wondering how we will spend it
Me? I would sell mine
I would barter off everything I own
Just to buy some more time to spend with you
Before our goodbyes.

If I could change anything about you
That would be a mistake
Maybe the mistake I would make
Would to be changing you so you never met me
Only so I could met you again
But that would be selfish
And frankly quite weird
Because I don’t think I could shake your hand
And let you tell me your name
Without finishing it with your middle and last
Or without asking if you needed anything at the store
Like those pretzels you like so much.

I fear a rebellion beginning within my body
The succession of my skin from my muscles
And armies of muscles that will then leave my bones
Who over the years have made such a strong ally in each other
That they would never fight for my heart alone
My heart, whose only comrades are my frail ribs
Bent, bruised, and broken from my lack of care
They stand as the last line of defense
A brave bunch no longer virgins to war
As I have after done battle with them many times before
When my dictator-like brain forces
My skin
My muscles
My bones
Down my throat to grab my heart
Commanding that they snap off my ribs
And use them as swoards
To claim that pumping ***** for its own
But my ribs they never move, they never break
My ribs alone know that a heart that belongs to a mind
Isn’t really a heart at all.