
my heart bleeds like my gums after chewing on a Brillo pad
370Please respect copyright.PENANAxu1pL5ZdKf
“the straw went through the coconut!”
she shouted as she cycloned out the door,
mumbled to myself, “nevermore.”
370Please respect copyright.PENANAhhs1BBuCBI
like that first cold snap in autumn370Please respect copyright.PENANAB5rsyrOym6
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 370Please respect copyright.PENANAuI4JWtIgVK
first kissed this ready-for-easy-picking ripe and juicy butternut squash.370Please respect copyright.PENANAdXuf8RJ78k
left decayed and blackened, once green and naive to the core.
mumbled to myself, “nevermore.”
370Please respect copyright.PENANAa3tLyIdpZl
jagged and digitized are my emotions 370Please respect copyright.PENANAtIOEHuphsY
as i scroll through our photos of the good times seen370Please respect copyright.PENANAY2y1UEYUbF
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.”
370Please respect copyright.PENANAoQSCB4VZFl
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.”
370Please respect copyright.PENANAyki7XtGchD
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.”
370Please respect copyright.PENANA2COIoas75q
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, 370Please respect copyright.PENANAiOpXuCT2NX
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.
370Please respect copyright.PENANA7oG8hjE1cC
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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