Quiet Lives

Musinex covered baby
dancing in rainbow socks and
recliner leather
sleeping off two months spent
working too hard

Pooh pj princess
head wrapped and counting
the minutes until morning
quiches and holy heaven
hallelujahs

Curly headed heathen
drinking H2O and wasting
precious minutes of sleep
reading cupcake literature
and gossip columns

Each
somewhere between
living
and dying
dwelling
alone and
together
in the mystery
and uncertainty
that lies in the minutes
waiting for
dawn.

Sick

Burning pages in my
favorite book
one at a time
until the ending is gone
and I've only to wait
until it gets written again
in red crayon
on the back of a
Walgreen's receipt for
Sudaphed
at a quarter past
whenever

that's what it feels like
to be sick

I'm just waiting
for what if feels like
to be well.

Mausoleum

Dusting the tops of bookshelfs
and glass filled china cabinets
watching you make potstickers
talking about taking down the
curtains that she never seems
to notice have turned yellow
even if they're still white and
you're a little crazy in that
lovable 75 yeared Asian lady way

I move over to dust off your
husbands ash filled box
staring on in silence
as you pour oil in a pan
and I listen to the sizzle
of our simultaneous lives.

Come and See

dark hair curling on a
fontanel
buttered up to
your brand new
32 inch grin

and she said you're
not part of my
life
figment of the fantasy
I live in
two feet that should be
grounded
lofting in the condensed
white

it broke glass windows in
my house

because it was never about
you or me

it was always about her

2.5 years away
slowly letting go of a string
that i'll forever
be tethered to.

Reading Into

you say one thing
clear, to the point
direct

but you may mean
another

and I want to believe
you were being nice
encouraging me
praising me for a thought
you hadn't thought
before

but I get the feeling
I might be
wrong

I get the feeling you
don't really care
what I have to
say

and I don't no whether to be
hurt
or enthusiased
or accustomed
to the way
the world
works.