Donuts and Relationships
fat poured
into grease,
my distrust
into yours.
oil soaking
into a brown paper bag,
a checked,
red tablecloth,
over this
wall growing up between us,
you’ve found
another love.
these donuts
you bring me,
are like
tarnished tokens,
tokens of
once,
long-forgotten
love.
this donut,
adding more
where less is needed,
hardly
replaces those sweet, naïve days
of sparkling eyes
of sparkling eyes
and pounding
hearts.
but as it
is,
this is it.
go see your
mistress,
bring me a
donut back.
let us wait
for the inevitable,
the end of
this,
when our
hearts will stop beating as one,
in fact
they will
cease
to beat
at all.
The Piano Player
vodka
slurred notes twinkling in the air,
mixing with
the blushing strings of lights
draped on
the tree.
her shaky
hands
gliding over
glossy keys.
an empty
smile,
glazed eyes.
her hands
were hungry.
so she
played
on that big
piano,
in that big
church,
her feet
dangling.
now she
stumbles every night into this bar.
she plays.
she takes no
breaks.
this is what
she does.
who she is.
black
high-heeled shoes,
affairs with
those already spoken for.
all those
songs take up all the room
in that
being of hers,
that has no
more room.
hair fading.
fading
lights in eyes.
this is the
piano player.
Starfish
invincible warriors, I’ve heard,
legs growing back
like some sort of godly being.
but we pick them up anyway,
leave them on these ashy rocks
to be parched by the sun,
to hang in the fishnets hung by our windows.
little beacons in our living room.
little geometric beings
clinging to their rocks
as I cling to my fantasies of normalcy.
pancakes on Sunday nights.
sister,
what is that world?
the one into which you’ve disappeared?
what is it that I don’t know?
Tulips, Loneliness, Strokes
3 haikus
sowed, you were
last spring
braving the
cold as infants
bright,
flaming glory
this
heartache drowns me
my life now
falls on deaf ears
you’ve left
me alone
eyes stared
blankly up
reaching up
blindly past me
drift away,
you can go
