Maya

Sometimes I think the sun is false
Yet I am certain it eats at my enamel
when cruel summer conspires against my smile
It is false, maybe, because if it wasn't
I would have to hide
I wouldn't have shelter in a wintering shade, but
in the dangerous space between old and new lovers
I stand unseen, peeling, fully clothed and freezing
I am standing, naked and new in the falsity of the sun
Sundered by the uncovering light
I am husking my underbelly.  I am learning a new language.
I am speaking with a tongue of fire and words of smoke.
Into the open air I shout, "I want nothing else."  I am tired.
My phrases are tired.  I am cracked open now.
Can't its rays falter for a moment?  Can't it shutter for an instant?
I am a fool to have even stepped outside.

-AB & KP turn-based text msg poem

Manifestations of Love #1

i wonder if it's possible that you're like some sort of physical manifestation of the concept of love

probably

-JDP

Series of Lies #23

Oh!  Ha!  Did I tell you about the time I lied to customs at Heathrow Airport in London?  They were suspicious of my overwhelming youth & beauty & statistically relevant features for those who are likely to overstay the visa welcome.  I also didn't know the address of the hotel.  And the phone number of my travelling pal was missing one number.  And I said he had a girlfriend.  And he said how odd that a girlfriend would allow an attractive foreigner follow her boyfriend around so!  And I said well that isn't odd one bit!  And her name is Margaret Pettigrew.  We call her Maggie.  And then he talked to his supervisor.  And then I said I didn't want to say I was a lesbian because I wasn't sure if the UNITED KINGDOM was okay with gay.  He said oh we don't mind that here.  I sweated through my shirts.  Maybe he thought I was suspicious because I was sweating a lot when I approached him initially.  Who knows.  He said he didn't trust me but I had to make sure I didn't work and I left within 30 days.  Not. A. Problem.

Then I used my first payphone at Trafalgar Sq.  

a vivid dream in the clearing where our house sits:

chopping wood with a houseguest
and the kids come by fighting about who should get the green toothbrush holder and i ask them: if this was your last day together what would you do", and bonk them on the heads.
they run off goofing and yelping
and the houseguest asks me what i would do.

i smile and ask what he would do
he asked me first
but i say my answer won't be swayed

he would fly through towers of new egypt
dancing in the streets riding the panic of civilization
and shrink to be greater than the entirety of our galactic metropolis
i don't remember what he said
he said it quickly and with his eyebrows slightly distracting me
and i told him, he reminded me of myself

"i would do this
what i'm doing now
be splitting the wood
and go on a walk with my family
off in a direction we'd never taken before
and go to a sacred place
i might ask you to watch the kids for an hour so that i could be alone with my husband
one last time to get dirt in the folds of our ears under our fingernails in our hair
then we would come home and we would all make dinner together
bread and wine and everything in the house
and we'd build a fire
madrona pine and oak and smell at the sky
make the stars sweat

i would want to ride my bike once more, too
maybe that i would do just by myself
in the afternoon between my two hikes

and i would like you to stay

your crinkle cut fries are getting cold

i don't know how to spell unleavened,       i wonder how many bombs were made before crisco was invented,        i don't know what shortening shortens,

& i am unable to love you.  i gave up on the outside wind coming in.  the windows are stuck shut

i gave you a dogbone to give to the puppy across the street
that usually gives it back anyhow by the end of the day
       it took an ounce of baking soda to feel my tongue again

o i don't know your middle name, we fuck like little boys with their knuckles knee-deep in mud,         i am taking up quitting again.

your crinkle cut fries are getting cold.

I ATE THEM ALL (collaboration)

TITLE: I ATE THEM ALL

like your favorite phrase

the lake is on fire 

the sky is red blood has been spilt on this night

rash is benign

are grenades really the way to go? 

land mines are maiming

moonlit anomalies 

I ate them all 

I ATE THEM ALL

as men adjust themselves accordingly

I turn away from you I breathe

as dragons fire the breach 

the people cry

I cry over spilt milk every day

pant-less prayers 

I have the time of my life fighting dragons with you

we are all made of star stuff 

as guitars strum a chord 

- A.T., J.J., K.P., K.T., A.B., A.T., K.F.,