Paper Flower

Waxed paper flowers
Skimmed over lines
Dutiful tokens of an economy
of care
Saved from the floods
for reanimation

The desert tells no jokes now
We all pray to outlast the sun
If we stare at one another
our blood can reroute
Flowing in the same direction

Overlook memory
Past the rains that became salt
Past those accidents
Trunks of waxed paper flowers
Washed up and hidden
Wax melting phosphorescent

Paper flowers laugh forever
Just bleed a bit more
than you think you can

Collected by Blood

Dreams are forgotten
in early morning syrup
distracting and sloppy,
Collected by blood
rearranged over eons
Travelling silently
first heated once by the Sun

Each lost mirage
Some gentle opportunity
in the dew
trying to push past fragile veins
as the certainty of fading
into shadow
taunts each cell

Don't wake them up

Considering fate,
I'll be washing the dishes
when those nukes wake up

Say that one thing

It isn’t nightmare that mocks
but its faint memory
Chalk in summer on salty concrete
pale and dull,
A strange headache of the soul

Say that one thing again
Send me to that blinding cave
where I stay lost
I’ve never slept quite the same
since then

Insincere barter
All I’ve been offered
are shadowpuppets
of someone else’s one last chance
at integrity

Repeat words, actions
I keep hearing them in my dreams
and it will always feel
as though I never woke up

Conversations

Why does it always
end in death; why do we try
to outlive ourselves

Can We Admit

Glass is meant to be the same
every time it's seen
Illusion of protection

Can we still write those poems,
lovesick
between breaths,
Inches separating histories

Can we still write the poems
about not knowing
why we ever loved them

What do we do
when all of us are lost
at the same time

Can I just admit
I don't know
if there is honor
in remorse

And that I don't want you
to keep paying me
just to charge me when I die