it’s always small pains that leave me ruined,
the force of a stubbed toe on my way up the stairs,
prickled blood from a pushpin that wouldn’t stick.
the push-pull of father son,
weighted love on brittle plates
the way my mother says i eat too much
so i stay quiet. we lose grace
on grey mornings tense throats words
too loud i stumble back for this vertigo
makes me doubt every love there ever was.

my coffee was too...

with every change the light is mine
speckles of grace flash in the cracks
of parting skin
a new religion says its vow
new course in life breaks free
unhoused.

small dangers in shadows
how east meets the north
as famous figures taunt the young
hold hands with bleach-bathed truth.

home is a broken shell,
unsent texts vanish from the fold
as a smile sets into one’s jaw.
in time wounds turn grey
rivers evaporate and
mighty pain becomes a...

halfway through the start
a cataclysmic eyelid’s drop of
red on wrinkled time-
fabric long lost 
in the tenses of woven strips,
like elements of august in the breeze.
excels in golden light
as stonehenge moves closer
gathered bouquets of
bites on awkward lips.
september kissed me,
october alive,
figments of imagination
stolen and painted white:
trampled missteps
amble on, notice
a sunkissed moment
set on ancient rules outrun.

ruthless faith in my blood
ruthless watch on my world
as...

the morning was hysterically beautiful, a frenzied storm of crystal hail.
the drought sighs, arid doubts beading his brow.
extreme weather makes internal chaos seem small;
meteors of the mind pale to a dinosaur’s last memory,
and if i had one last second to live
i would hope for a beautiful sky.

a gracious wind holds my hair at dawn,
she braids it into waves-ribbons of freedom graze my neck.
i want to tell her it’s too cold today:
no...

will you hold me like hull house, for all my grime and dirt
keep me warm and soothe my wounds while i bathe?
a sweeter land could never greet me        would you know
how much it hurt to leave a child’s mind     in truth my bones 
refuse to heal         forget life before the move.

would you study me as the sisters did
am i a case study for a savior         is this worth
my...