Vacation

Don’t.
Embrace the space between us
Familiarize yourself with vacancy
because I’ve checked out.
It wasn’t the bed bugs
moth chewed cream curtains
semen stains on a carpet
the same shade as oatmeal-
It was you.
So,
Just. Don’t.

Family

Baby brother
with hair like wildfire
eyes of deepest blue
glistening like the surface
of Lake Michigan in Indian summer-
A smile of hidden treasures
buried deep like our mother before us

You learned this early on-
not all that is found yields reward
But count those calluses
the sting of sweat
watch the blood trickle into
the wound slashed into the earth

Baby brother
you remember it well-
a broken chair the kindling to
an arson whose hearth still glows
beneath the charred remains
of a broken home

Baby brother
show me the blisters-
Continue to stand too close
to the fire and you will get burned
But learn to walk away
and only then, will you learn to heal

Definition, What a Decision

Listen close, loose change
Hear its tune in your
faded denim pocket

Sag,
a smiling waistband
hugs your hips

The tone of your skin
cream of mushroom

Your ugly,
all to my appetite

Hackneyed

A view of mercy-
admiring her,
now from a distance

I catch a glimpse-
a fleeting future
flashing before my
welling, weary eyes

She has saturated
my senses, she has
my attention wrapped
tight around her limp finger

At her mercy now,
though I fear she has forgotten.
Will my words echo?

Will we love again?

I have began to dig deep into
my patience reserve, so you
don't have to bankrupt your emotions.