You were a new road to him:

A new little shortcut

From the original route

Fresh tar, barely sun-dried.

Black, and bold, just how he likes ‘em.

And he hugged your curves

With the greatest of ease;

Ignored your speed limits

And ran with the breeze.

Crossed the lines more than once,

Yet still you are relieved

By the cool feel of his ride

As he strides over your smooth terrain.

He leaves skid marks

On your once-flawless frame

And then signals “goodbye,”

Turning left, leaving you in the cold

While he searches for a new useful road:

A new shortcut

to get him out of the traffic.

Now you remain abused,

once a black and beautiful path

Whose desire is to simply

Be the long way home.

And now you are pale and gray,

Waiting for the day

When your cement will be repaved

And ready to be found

As just another shortcut.

It is the moonlight in my skin,
that’s why I glow in the dark
It is the trail of northern lights
that lights the sky when I laugh
It is the night-time in my beauty,
the bright crescent moon in my smile
And the eclipses of my eyes,
each sparkle in my pupils
a collage of constellations
I hula-hoop in the rings of Saturn,
playing jacks with the stars,
shooting pool with the planets,
sinking them into never-ending black holes
I spin on the merry-go-round
of Mercury’s orbit
With the power to give birth
to sunsets from my womb
I am a woman, celestial
extraterrestrial
and for me, the world turns
and the universe
is simply my playground.

If I could spin him counterclockwise until all time was erased
and send him back to the beginning of the human race,
give him the breath of eternal life and the kiss of youth,
I know his heart would guide him to what I already know as truth…
He would dream beautiful dreams of a love he can’t yet touch,
living year by year, craving what’s out of reach so much
Then I could prove to ancestors that he Loved me so deeply
that he relived thousands of years, simply to seek me.

…he quenched my thirst for knowledge with shot glasses full of lies
that went down warm and sweet; seemed like molasses to my eyes
But shoulda known he tricked me, that he slipped me a surprise,
cuz he knew what he was doing, gave me whiskey in disguise
See, i asked him for the truth, served fresh and sweet like orange juice
but shoulda known he threw the truth out with the bitter peels of fruit
Because any truth that’s hidden is like apples made forbidden,
isolated and prohibited so Truth is never given.
He shot a hole through my heart and threaded me with a string,
pulling me along until i bled for everything
My cries were his smiles, my mistakes his suit of armor…
whatever made me weak only served to make him stronger.
All those lies he fed my soul simply kept me under control
while my belly was full of bullshit, my heart was left a hole
But now my eyes are open cuz i know his love ain’t real
took a year for him to tell me, to confess how he really feels.
Although it sometimes breaks our hearts, She proves to be a savior:
TRUTH, the best soul-sweetener no matter how bitter its flavor.

I zoomed in,
saw the blur of brown skin,
a hue I’d recognize
if the image was sharper.
I zoomed out
and saw the form
of a man:
a shape I would have known
had I been a bit closer.
I pulled away from the viewport
and put down the camera
that specializes in
a few too many megapixels.
Only then did I realize
that five feet away,
at the perfect distance,
stood the love my eyes had squinted at
through an unknowing lens.