Your body feels strange next to mine

what once used to fit perfectly
now feels forced with
weird angles
and arms
badly intertwined

i watched You all day

You looked down
fingers blurring up my sight
it was silent
but i heard every time
Your thumbs thumped against the bright display
someone else's words taking You from me

oh Lord
don't you think it'd be easier
just to let me go?

i don't understand the point of it all
don't understand why i choose people
that won't ever give me
all i give them

don't understand why it's
happened three times
in the span of
six years

You're right next to me
but i'm not really there
am i?

the door is ten feet from us
and Your body feels strange next to mine
but i don't understand
why i never  
get up
and
leave

my uncle says that all poetry is the same.
he's right, of course.
forty-four years old,
unmarried, tired,
working on an oil rig in Mississippi.
he's got wisdom i can't even imagine.
it's all the same.

no matter how hard i try,
no matter if i change Your name,
no matter if You actually read this,
it's all the same.

my uncle says that all poets are the same.
i believe him, of course.
eighteen years old,
just graduated, tired,
full of one sided, unrequited love for the whole world.
i've got naivety you can't even imagine.
we're all the same.

but i promise you,

cross my heart and hope to die,
no matter if it never changes,
no matter how many times i write this stupid poem,
every time i do,

it hurts just the same.

I am in love with a woman who loves me
it is not perfect and I don't want it to be
no one knows what perfect looks like
home runs are best hit after the second strike
Ease fills my mind and chest with her
we aren't anything like we once were
She's my branch that's new and strong
green with flower and birds with song
in all shades, winter, summer, and spring
I'll forever remember the meaning of this ring
and the many rings as our tree grows
strong in the storms and the wind that blows
for we are a tree combined now
intertwined

you feel like that one place in the woods that you can just be yourself in, the one place that you can just stay in forever and never get tired of because you can see everything so clearly and you can breathe better?
those colors, the beautifully deep earth tones...the sweet chocolate browns and the bright mustard yellows of the leaves and the enchanting greens of the trees surrounding me amidst the openness of the forest.
that is you, this is who you are to me.