my heart bleeds like my gums after chewing on a Brillo pad
87Please respect copyright.PENANAQUufZviVCB
“the straw went through the coconut!”
she shouted as she cycloned out the door,
mumbled to myself, “nevermore.”
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like that first cold snap in autumn87Please respect copyright.PENANAG6rfIpi21b
when the summer rose surrenders to the sudden fall in clime.
And finally withers, fades, and dies, thorny on its vine.
like our love that october night when your crystal lips of frost 87Please respect copyright.PENANAU5bCfHCUhE
first kissed this ready-for-easy-picking ripe and juicy butternut squash.87Please respect copyright.PENANAZ3c8BvBHpT
left decayed and blackened, once green and naive to the core.
mumbled to myself, “nevermore.”
87Please respect copyright.PENANA9a5Crh2piQ
jagged and digitized are my emotions 87Please respect copyright.PENANAbQZoa2ezvo
as i scroll through our photos of the good times seen87Please respect copyright.PENANAt5POLG0mBy
through a myriad of tears and a cracked cel phone screen.
If memories are butterflies, they lay in a cocoon of cement underneath the basement floor.
mumbled to myself, “nevermore.”
87Please respect copyright.PENANAGmSKTFYq3O
love is heavy,
like a two-liter jug of pepsi
set out under the summer star too long, flat and fizzless.
cubes of ice and photons, like us, at war.
mumbled to myself, “nevermore.”
87Please respect copyright.PENANAObwgcWlkXg
my ripped and faded heart might one day mend
with a needle and a little TLC, like patched-up jeans worn while begging at my knees
ridding my frayed sadness like a pet shampoo rids dogs of ticks and fleas.
stitching up all my past hurts, too, like when i was ignored at four.
mumbled to myself at five, “nevermore.”
87Please respect copyright.PENANANkB4nsBQSJ
it may come to pass that i choose to live my life,
not gasping like an ICU patient choking in an oxygen tent, dying from pneumonia,
but with the full lung capacity of the winged-god mercury,
as he sprints through the sky in a marathon race to patagonia.
like cyclists fleetly pedaling
through the hills and flats of the tour de france, 87Please respect copyright.PENANAHlpl3XaOld
their torn-up knees from peloton crashes, patched anew,
like my torn-up, bleached-out denim heart caused by love,
an aneurysm, like a racer’s bike tire that just blew.
87Please respect copyright.PENANAZPJt6NZTzo
one day, perhaps, i might smile more
might even laugh and roar.
when that time comes i shall caw:
YES! FOREVERMORE!
ns 172.70.178.95da2