me and alllllllllll of my sad walk into the poetry event

convinced nobody wants either of us to be there. we’ve heard we’re articulate in front of an audience but now we get stage fright just walking up to a circle of people that love us because how could they love both of us? love me and all of my ugly? in a conversation, we’re figuringContinue reading “me and alllllllllll of my sad walk into the poetry event”

chronic fatigue swansong 1/365

Exhaustion is the a) clingiest partner I have ever had. b) coat I am always wearing. c) dance I never stop doing. d) abusive relationship I can’t leave. Fatigue isn’t being tired. Unless, by being tired you mean it is your identity. It is my secret one.  Everything you see of my ease is a)Continue reading “chronic fatigue swansong 1/365”

The future is crowdsourced.

we pick each other ‘s brains like wildflowers. capitalism has never been tender with us so we are relentlessly soft with one another. This system leaves us for dead but we keep bringing each other nourishment gift-wrapped as laughter. we keep bringing each other Alive.

Just because you don’t want to hear it doesn’t make it fake news.

I speak a poem about my childhood trauma and you don’t like the culpability you say you have different opinions of my past I say I think you mispronounced, “this isn’t how I imagined my legacy” mispronounced, “I made you in my image who are you to be a visionary not just (my) vision?” Mom,Continue reading “Just because you don’t want to hear it doesn’t make it fake news.”

the first person in the bloodline to analyze their trauma does so after causing their weight in it.

for years I became the shape of my anguish. I wasn’t just hurt. I was the hurt. when you are the wound and the salt you would do anything to stop the hellfire you have become but not before you enact the pain, make it reverberate into someone else’s lap say heavy say here sayContinue reading “the first person in the bloodline to analyze their trauma does so after causing their weight in it.”

An eclipse creates a shadow and wonders why it looks like that

I knew you were afraid of falling in love. I never said (but I wanted to say,) “don’t. don’t fall in love. stand up in it.” an eclipse reminds me that when you lose enough of something it becomes something else. I came to you entirely terrifying and at just the wrong enough time forContinue reading “An eclipse creates a shadow and wonders why it looks like that”

 My shame is a mold that only grows in the parts of me I refuse to shed light on

refuse to talk about. I need a better flashlight a braver mouth a new dictionary to find fresh words to form familiar sounds in new ways. I write a lot of poems about growth but have you ever loved something so much you didn’t notice it never loved you back? sometimes, I’m so focused onContinue reading ” My shame is a mold that only grows in the parts of me I refuse to shed light on”

I write the wrong poem and it scores well

every season I compete with it. a few seasons in I write the one I finally mean on a subject previously too scared to touch Ironically about a time I was too scared to touch (and in both cases I didn’t speak up until) I touch stage, kill the poem the audience exactly the rightContinue reading “I write the wrong poem and it scores well”

I am not the handcuffs on my bed post,

nor what you assume they say about me. I am the steady voice that asks them to be used. not just IN control I am control even when I consensually give it away. I am a sovereign entity, allocating all this power exactly as I see fit, boundless even when bound I am safe. IContinue reading “I am not the handcuffs on my bed post,”