13 lines

I will err on the side of caution, for
it is easier to be forgotten and lonely
than it is to be known and hated,
and I would rather have you look over
me, melt my skin into the colours of background
noise, than have you cut me into strips
of judged personhood.

And I would rather have you look the other
way than give me the time of day to point
out all my flaws and cracks - I know where
they are and why they have come to be -
I don't need you telling me
what I am, I know it quite perfectly.

Good Night Thoughts

Still-seeming are days filled with longing
for things remembered and so long ago
but there will be many more, I tell myself
not to worry, that on the pillows
of future beds there will be warmth
and once more a beating heart to set
the rhythm of my sleeping breath,
gentle dimples holding the love of
hundreds of smiles.

In-between beats

This day dawns darkly and sad I sit
remembered touches flitting through mind
and chafed remains of fiery kisses laid light
on lips that have forgotten their purpose, thinking
that consonants carry conclusions fit for their existence.
No.
I wish it were not so, that tips of tentative fingers
lie still in ruthless rest from gentle gestures of affection
and that soft eyes brimming with the caresses of worn practice
fall sternly or dash away in panicked escape from gazes
too much to be friendly, too less to be love.
But
the taking of moments for posterity and shredded records
thread through thin time and its slow drip into later, perhaps
later
Never quite
becoming
now.

Dance

Because the days before you die are numbered
and will come to an end, then you must
Dance
in spare moments when you can.

Even if there is a heaven we've not been promised
the luxury of corporeal bodies, legs
to bear us fleet-footed over floors so
Dance.

And even if heaven did allow, by some miracle,
for us to keep our bodies and legs
the days spent growing old
and things like arthritis and stiffness
will come before you realize it if you don't
Dance
when you are young and breathe
the smell of sweaty people in.

Dance -
I make no case that is not fueled by
the incessant need
to move to rhythm of air
vibrating against soul.