Brachiating is what they call that trick When monkeys swing from tree to tree Grasping the next limb, before releasing the last Brachiating (monkeys) Instinctive behavior to maximize safety Lest the monkeys go crashing down. How we thrill at their precision and agility, Their nano-speed choices of target, The gracefully executed swing, The coordinated grip-and-release. Brachiating (me) Don't you marvel at my movement now? How I am simultaneously loving and leaving, Always artfully overlapping...

Everyone misspelled my name; most, repeatedly.

I rewrite the wistful, witless monster, the limping Monster of Missing You, rework it whenever missing one, because it’s not about the one. It’s about the missing. There was no leaving involved, simply a cessation of intimacies, and then the subsequent internal maelstrom, because the necessity of what must be done does not necessarily make it easier to do. Thus, the monster is no waste; the monster is my proxy, bears the weight of the ambivalence and regret and longing, so that I may go on ab...

I always submitted absolutely spotless copy.

Patience I miss you soft A flopping blossom, Wan and wafting Dropping, dreary Weary, waiting for a washing. Dust of days Is dry and draining Wicks away My petals’ wishing Holding, hopeless Scarcely longing. Clouds are closing Drizzle dripping Like the lustre Of your kissing, Swells the hope The blossom blushing Dares again Defies the drying. Holds with purpose Heeds the earnest Petals pushing. First unfolding Then the stretching Catching dew And finally reaching. Ruby-throated bird Comes call...

Here in this corner Of your sweet and round You're sweet around me With your healing hand upon me And your sugar breath to warm me Let this be where I belong My broken back rewoven Back together by your giving In this soft and loving corner Of your warm

So searing at this moment I am afraid to touch you Boiling, just beneath the skin A simmer of muscle about to erupt Scalding sweet kisses evaporate off your lips before they reach my own trembling near your sweltering I am afraid of being burned but I am alive Kinetic energy sparks off your wanting your hunger like a glowing brand You'll mark me as yours forever with your sizzling teeth Your torrid tongue flicks fiery At the corner of that peppery pout Curled crimson Into that smoky smile I ...

Writhing eventually subsides, quelled, settles into mere twitches, Involuntary sighs, some blinking, some staring as the darkness settles softly with neither malice nor mercy, just weight. Gravity under flesh, Tendons relaxing, More settling and Thought follows bone and she surrenders, surrenders, because what else?

They were merely lovers Foul friends with benefits He was married and kept her But once he had her, he found He could keep her with less and less When the hurricane came Her rental house smashed on her car, She escaped with her two daughters, found lodgings; A motel by the freeway, a single room; He'd come by, bringing a little money, and rum, McDonalds and toys from the 99 cent store. They'd send the girls out to play. And it went on for months Gradually more rum, and less money Just enough ...

I Am Not Bleeding I am not bleeding Not today Not cut or torn or carved away Not stabbed or sliced for some relief Not wounded for my soul’s belief that wounds Were all the comfort I could find To just release the filth inside The evil toxin, shameful self Insufficient, damned to hell, to hell, to hell Insufficient, inexcused Without merit, without use So yes, the careful cutting came The clever answer to the shame But not today I am not bleeding Not today I trace the scars and how they fade ...