my heart bleeds like my gums after chewing on a Brillo pad
85Please respect copyright.PENANAZfFEgZJws5
“the straw went through the coconut!”
she shouted as she cycloned out the door,
mumbled to myself, “nevermore.”
85Please respect copyright.PENANAbaTL77IQPr
like that first cold snap in autumn85Please respect copyright.PENANA3GVvWMyL3Q
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 85Please respect copyright.PENANAgWuKvQcPGL
first kissed this ready-for-easy-picking ripe and juicy butternut squash.85Please respect copyright.PENANAgqJLKZHCPr
left decayed and blackened, once green and naive to the core.
mumbled to myself, “nevermore.”
85Please respect copyright.PENANAhpluFA8T9q
jagged and digitized are my emotions 85Please respect copyright.PENANADv4LBclHYt
as i scroll through our photos of the good times seen85Please respect copyright.PENANAeNFIDjzbsE
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.”
85Please respect copyright.PENANAmQfx3QSzXG
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.”
85Please respect copyright.PENANAnTSKJsac01
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.”
85Please respect copyright.PENANAWnuFTBkXbr
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, 85Please respect copyright.PENANAfFN6o1cCWk
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.
85Please respect copyright.PENANAxUjGwEUBhl
one day, perhaps, i might smile more
might even laugh and roar.
when that time comes i shall caw:
YES! FOREVERMORE!
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