the globe is warming
it's sickly sweet beneath
these thin sheets we share
as water levels rise
with every breath spit
into the atmosphere
by planes trains
and automobiles

maybe it's an inevitability
all i know
is that we've passed
the point of no return
it is irreversible
no denying a shifting climate
elevating seas and oceans
as seasons slip haphazardly
sending blood rushing
to our heads

let's live for today
since we could very well
be dead and buried
by the week's end
we won't go meekly
into the black holes
awaiting our solar system

apathy an enemy we'll transcend
hand-in-hand as champions
vanquishing impotent ideologies
steadfast sentinels
ancient as trees
guarding sacred mysteries
of this infinite cosmos

the marks of abandoned faith
are etched into her flesh
a sheep beneath a lonely flag
a crescent moon hidden under her arm
tattooed remnants of a dead deity
neither of us believe in anymore

with each declaration
of secularization anointing
scarlet lips
i yearn to reach out
with fingertips and rhetoric
to more intimately understand
a dizzying intellect
she shares willingly

a life plagued by faith
scarred by family
trying their best
and failing
miserably

she glances at me furtively
eyes as green as the foliage
of ancient trees
standing watch
over whispering rivers
in silent summers
long forgotten

she holds my gaze

we recognize
ourselves
in one another
there is trust
and intimacy
solidarity in suffering

she smiles
when she thinks
i'm no longer looking

a needle brushes pink flesh
slips beneath fragile skin
an endorphin-rush
feeding sweet addiction

adrenaline thunders in eardrums
a gallop of wild stallions
stampeding past neurological valleys
shuddering eternally within

an itch
that must be
scratched

a thirst
that can't be
sated

a lust
always
anticipated

i'll suffice
to be sedated
with self-hatred
isolated from my muse
in snow-swathed Iowa

a heroine in her own story
and ****** in mine

i saw a dead dog on the median today
its entrails scattered
across sun-baked cement
gore crows perched on
suburban rooftops
cursing the cars
that drove past aimless
separating them
from breakfast

                                                               i've
                                                      been
                             s t r e t c h e d
                       like
            string
theory

an object
e l o n g a t e d
by the pressure
of gravity
gobbling light
black holes
f r a c t u r i n g
time and space

i am jaded
bitter
restless
weary

i snapped today
broke a picture frame
the glass shattered
shards splayed
the photograph remained
temporarily unscathed
i burnt the black and white image
with a lighter that smelled
faintly of old cigarettes

it was not an accident

i wanted to
hurt
break
maim
****
something other than
myself
for once

a fury fills every fiber of my being
infernal ire boiling internally
controlling contorting consuming
i bore my cross this far
it'd be a shame to leave it
unoccupied

i am a wilted wallflower
just across the hall
deadened petals
plucked and fallen
scattered remnants
on cold stone
each discarded petiole
inscribed with simple limericks
like butterfly kisses

                              she loves me

**** the pollen
out from me
suffocating poison
trim my leaves
and shear my thorns
no longer dangerous
mold me into something
safe and harmless

                              she loves me not

rid me of beauty
bid me return
to that same dust
from whence i came
a lust overpowers
and devours all hope
so crush me between
the pages of your
favorite book
let me rest
in peace
not pieces

how might my reality be redefined
by slipping furtively
like a hapless lover
disentangling midnight sheets
fleeing past pathways of my own psyche
to see the view from her mind’s balcony

to inhabit intergalactic eyes
sparkling and shining like supernovae
every time she parts scarlet lips
in defense of the helpless

i'd plant gardens inside her irises
water the seeds and invite the bees
to pollinate fresh thoughts and rejuvenate
an energy that could illuminate new theories
about the cosmos and its inhabitants

i want to dwell within
corridors of infinite imagination  
bridge the synaptic gaps
across rivers of lapsing memories
a lackadaisical adventurer
adrift in neurological galaxies
ingesting erudite insight

i yearn to build a home
inside the mind
of a poet
an activist
and a bona fide genius

i stare up at the same spot on the ceiling
desperate and restless beneath sweet sheets
the fan groans incessantly in my right ear
a drone that can't quite drown out the internal din
a cacophony simmering infernally within

gossamer strands shimmer in the moonlight
spider-webs interconnecting above my head
trapping my hope and retaining my dread
until naught is left but undead recollections
nascent nightmares and frightening images

a half-dozen dreamcatchers spin on twine
suspended intermittently throughout my mind
serpentine figures intertwined in the twilight
adamantine revelations of eternal return
dragons chasing their own tails ad infinitum

sleep is a tease that whispers gently like a breeze
death shares the coffin that doubles as my bed
she ***** everyone but she returns in the end
and when my time comes i'll meet her as a friend
relieved i need no longer pretend to be free