Collaboration with Brett Nelson.

She opened the door and stepped into the bright blue glow of neon. Sin spread out before her like a beacon containing non but the thoughts of her flickering light of a mind. Bodies shifted past her in shapes and shadows. She sucked it in with a wavering breath and spilled into the madness that spun around her; pulling her in and sharply down into the whirlpool.

As she descended, the blur of bodies began to focus and warm arms reached out to brush her face like hushed summer wind or the soft hair of a lover. She stretched her fingers out into the warmth and blew a heavy breath upon the naked shadows. Her teeth split as a grin spread across her face with the growing glow of the given.

Seen in the shape of the bodies- the curves of hips reflecting her own and the incline nested in the nape of her spine. She curled back into the expanse, shutting tight her eyes as it enveloped from spine to eyes and the shadows became brightly lit and slowed with the colors and breath of the cradling wind.

She opened her eyes and she was immediately bombarded with heavy shining light. Flowing out of the dim shadow of her whirlwind mind- a stare, intensely firing the ground about her toes with Autumn leaves, hot with the ashes of the months of steady grins, tethered sleep, and unquestioned footsteps now to be kicked into the brisk dusk.

Night was fast approaching, and with it those neon lights will shine brighter than ever.

111708

The daytime soundtrack is replaying in my stomach- on repeat-
growling with 3AM hunger and calling me to let go of the day.
"Let down your hair and release into the calling; into the sleep."
It tells me that here- here I can be with and what I want,
I can do and see and have it too; to the sound of strings plucked
fingers pulling tone; and those dreams will tell me the secrets
of my slicked back conversations and daylight interactions.
Celebrities and concubines- tangerine summers and winters
filled with satsumas tumbling. Thick skinned lemons in spring.
Which is the season for citric? They all are! They all are!
I can smell your oranges in my bed sheets with a shiver-
my lips pucker with a burn sharp in the base of my jaw.
Your body is aloe on sun-scorched skin. A counteract to acid.
I am dreaming of playing instruments on street corners
and the music is pouring from your eyes- flooding the streets
and bringing the dank and darlings of the city crashing
down onto my doorstep.

Your memory will be wiped in ten minutes. What do you want to remember?

My teacher posed the following assignment in class: Your memory is going to be wiped in ten minutes. You have that amount of time to write down anything you want to remember afterwards. This was my response: A letter to myself.

You love purely and completely. The people in your life are beautiful and you appreciate that beauty. You are mesmerized by the awe of nature and you travel without a plan in order to experience that awe. You express what you take in through the process of writing and you want to spread that intake across the planet.

Coffee, music, wine, and boardgames are the keys to happiness on the weekend; and if you find someone to share that with- you are golden.

Your mantra is passion and your gravity pulls to the moon. You drive for hours without destination and find yourself with a friend on the coast watching the stars. You are a mother to the world and all it holds. You breathe the energies of others- take caution to the air around you. You take each day for what it can offer. You reflect fondly on your memories and tend to find yourself lost. You are falling in love.

If you ever feel uncomfortable in your own body, go swimming- you are more natural in the water than on land. And if the music moves you, you dance- alone or with others, you always dance.

Your family consists of the people you love around you and nothing could keep you from finding them. Try not to worry. Your angels are red, black, purple, and brown- and those hands will bring you home.

103108

Lady baby-
and I love you
ancient times with
urns and scattered
leaves across the breeze

and breath across
your arching neck
and kiss me with
a mother nurtured
her face against the babe

and toes to crunch
sand and ashes
dusting on the hearth
feet on fire's warmth
of chocolate dripped-

melted chips
a melted heart
and soft hands- lovely
intertwined and tugging
the corners of your mouth

with inappropriate laughter
a burst of collision
when I drove all night
to sleep under the skyline
my hands in your hands

under the tie-dye
the ripple of tie-dye

Where are my angels?

I am missing you through all my angels-
through summer's shades of sunlight
filtered by Evergreens and glinting
down to light your face.

By the spread of coastline
reflected in your shaded eyes
and aviators.

By the black, auburn,
blonde, and red of your locks
that fall around your teeth
and bounce off your cheekbones.

You are pulling on my ankles
filling my thoughts with the ache
chocolate filling deep into my lungs
and exhaling to sit on the lip.

You are dancing in my living room
smoking my heart
after drinks at midnight
and locking my eyes to yours
with allure cast in iron.

I am loving you through
the song of our memories
and yearning to set
my hand into yours
once, twice, a million times more.

102308- Vindictive.

Swim through my dreamwebs
hair drying in curls
eyes raw with sleeplessness
as allopathic placebos
grow stiff from the soil
crowd through the understory
slide thick around your head
solidifying into gelatin
a manufactured lime
cut wild into starfish
crawling pentagram on tree bark.

102608- Highway Blues

Spatter-brushed Autumn orange
fighting through
the steady tone of Evergreens
that line the hundred-mile highway
connecting your hands to mine.

The passing breeze sneaks
through cracks in the widow
kissing my arm
and I am sliding past Castle Rock.

Headlights and taillights
and flashing patrol lights
with sun-dried motel signs
disappearing in my rear-view
reflection.


Sun pierced through
skyline and horizon
pressed to earth
both vivid and void.
And flashing-
the stolen kiss
a glance of Apple Red
to take breath
as an offering
to the October sun.


Just 97 more exits and
I am on the road once more.
Passing gradients of fire
and the cell phone stalkers
droning down the highway.

As your voice resonates
under the vibration
of my speakers

Autumn vines
creeping fingers
on the overpass.

102608

A flashing preview
St. Helen's portrait
her face on the haze

A flashing preview
St. Helen's face
her haze on the haze

I see more of Autumn
through the lens
of my sunglasses

Autumn's reds
burn like fire
through my lenses.

Roving grassblades
the black spider
in the labyrinth.