Sunday, April 1, 2012

interpretation of fever

a hangnail a cough drop a plum
these are the words that i think go together.
do you want to dance under the moon like a frog in a basket?
my words look like acid and shrooms.
my brain feels like acid and shrooms.
I am here and hole.
do not wait for me to come back if you think I am gone
I am a frog in a basket somewhere.
Eating your soul.
Not really, do you recognize jokes?
I am in a boat in tree somewhere.
I am hole.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Swan Lake on a Sunday Night

I poem and I poem,
I poem to no end
except that there is an end,
because it's a poem.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

76.6

not even close to a thousand i know it makes a difference it has to.
i'd hold my breath but that is not human and i would die.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Hey guys, I don't usually do this non-poem-y posts (well I guess anything can be a poem...) but I decided this was important. For those of you that have not yet listened to slam poetry, YOU ARE MISSING OUT. It's probably not for everybody, but I think true poets like yourselves should at least give it a shot. So if you just need a little motivation, I'm listing a whole bunch of my favorites, so all you have to do it *click*. Enjoy =)

PHEW. So i gave you a ton of options... check it out!!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Piano Skeleton

My elbows and my lungs agree,
I hold a newborn the same way I hold my breath.

Days can pass by the hundreds but seconds are only measured in fireworks;
I can't see the castle from here, but the moon was brighter than ever last night and so were your eyes.

It's okay if you leave me shattered on the floor someday as long as my pieces are stained with your fingerprints,
I think my fingerprints would be more natural printed on your ribs than on the ivory keys.

You will soon figure out that I can tiptoe down the stairs in the dark of night
and I can leave a whisper hanging like a dead man.
I can dive under the water without making a splash.
But look how I make a ripple
every
time.

The day was sunny March, but I know you felt me shaking under your hands.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

I once found a ladder tall enough to crash through the atmosphere.
I climbed it until I could reach the tallest star of the big dipper, and I stole it out of the sky.
Then I swallowed it.

I could feel the star glowing all the way down my esophagus, and I never even stopped to worry that my stomach acids would devour its shine.
I know that my star found the secret cavern in the darkness of my body where the gum and the watermelon seeds hide.

I would say I was free but I still can't escape the moon's pull of the tides.
I'm still a slave to gravity and I couldn't divert my path from the north star if I tried.

Orion's belt may be big enough to hold us together
but I doubt it is tight enough to hold our pants up.

My star shines outside of my skeleton sometimes.

My light escapes through my throat when I sing sad songs by myself.
My light escapes through my eyes when I describe my best friend or my mother.
My light escapes through my pores when summer rain and soft words spoken with timid lips fall on my skin.

My grandparents have never spent a night separate from each others heartbeats.
This May will make 58 years.
My grandmother still cried when she told me the story of how she met my grandfather.
Some stars never burn out.

I'm offering you the lines on my palms, if you'd like I can show you:
My star shines outside of my skeleton sometimes.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

(untitled)

If the feathers
and the beads and the songs on my hands were enough to catch the look in your eyes,
I might dance at night.
Instead of writing you midnight poems.
My fingertips are graceful as they connect hearts to pages,
but if you open up your pupils in the dark you might notice my calloused palms;
I've been pulling ropes and hopes and miles.


Fragile (Handle with Care)

I poem in my bed, like maybe real-world sunlight will never come.
I lock rhythms in my head, in case the real-world sunlight never comes.
When I breathe sometimes,
I think I can feel the universe pulsing,
I check my pulse when I breathe sometimes to feel the universe
I am also too careful, like my mother.

The seconds on the clock harmonize with the raindrops on my driveway,
tick turns to drip as drop turns to tock,
the entwining of nature and science is beautiful sometimes.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

If I ever write the beginning of this poem it's gonna be great.

I've only waited 6 days but I think that you should know that the rate of diminishing hope only increases.


A Poem About a Railroad. Psych!!

Why do I love to write poems about people with a y chromosome?
And think about them, and dream about them...
I should like very much to write a poem about a railroad.
And think about the raindrops and dream about time.
But then the next thing I know I dreaming that in time we will sit under the raindrops as you read my poem about a railroad and then I am disgusting myself because I am so girl when will I be woman?

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Human Scales

If I were fish,
then I would would swim and swim all through the night.
If I were a fish,
I would make love to an octopus, and hope he wouldn't eat me, or ink me, just to see what we could create.
If I were a fish,
I would breathe like a superhero and zig and zag between the teeth of whale because I would be invincibly vulnerable and I would be cute like the goldfish my best friend won at the fair and I would be fierce like a piranha, fiercer than Tyra Banks, and I would take so many goddamn chances I would be right next to Nemo swimming up to that boat and then eventually I would swim into the open mouth of a shark because what are the chances of a fish like me surviving anyway and only the good die young.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Window and a Tall Mirror

Shout like the lightning on your skin
for the millions of readers that just thought of Harry Potter and
for the millions of bedroom poets trying to find something.
something
deeper
something
more
something
real.

Shout like the daisy on your tongue
growing faster than you can keep up with.
stumbling on words
experimenting with words
experimenting
with the boy in your basement and the girl in the nighttime car still hanging secret on your lips like the crescent moon still hanging in the indigo sky.

Shout like the paint exploding onto the canvas onto the walls
the walls in your brain
the walls in your heart
paint them down like the Berlin wall
paint them down
until it rains.
Catch a raindrop in your eye
and then maybe you can see
the colors running together because they were never meant to be apart
because the clock and the music note cannot coexist
because this world is our childhood coloring book-
paint over the lines.

Shout like the man that gets taken to the zoo
and taken to the playground
because they do not realize he is an adult
because they do not know about
respect
like he does and
shout for the person that wakes up in a cloud and
shout for the person that can't sing out loud,
and shout for the person staring back at the crowd
because he is not a she and she is not a he,
and they are just people,
or dragonflies,
tired of the staring.

Shout like the boy that walks in on his sister kneeling over the toilet, finger down her throat
and shout like salty tears he still remembers how to cry.
Shout like the girl
for the day she realized her veins were the chains holding back the bird,
she finds the school bathroom on her 16th birthday to cut the chains so the bird can fly.

Shout like the Titanic hitting the iceberg
hitting his heart
when he realized he would never see another sunrise and the sparkle in his wife's eyes.

Shout like death
Shout louder like life
Shout like the millions of bedroom poets
writing their world on their closet doors
the words come too fast
too strong,
all I get down is a single line:

I dive under the water and I stay there until the screaming of my lungs reminds my brain that I am human.

Friday, December 31, 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010

solo

if we
tango
through the
jello
you can be a
hero
and i'll wear a
halo
then maybe i will
let go
but maybe not;
uh-oh.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Recognizing the First Steps of Rejection

HUM
is a little tune,
like singing,
but with your mouth closed.
HUMan
is a mammal,
that eats and drinks, usually,
and has lots of feelings.
HUMane
is a good way to be,
like compassionate and kind,
kind of like my mom.
HUMiliation
is HUMming too loud and at the wrong time but
HUMiliation
is HUMan and
HUMiliation
still happens to really HUMane people.
and also humiliation is really just trying too hard maybe you know what i mean
hummmmm.


Sunday, December 26, 2010

Baby Willow

I can be shallow
and I can be sad.

I can sit on my bed,
in the safe darkness of my room,
and hug my knees to my chest
trying to lose myself in the music and the words
because I feel like I'm slipping.

I can sit on the grass,
cross-legged with my best friends,
getting high on August air
laughing so hard that I can't squeeze my hands into fists
and it hurts my abs from yesterday's workout.

I can sit in the woods,
by myself,
and think by the waterfall
of the big things in the world and also of the small things
and know that I'm connected to it all.

I can sit with my grandpa,
and learn about race horses,
and about buying low and selling high
and sports and culture and kindness and the big picture,
and mostly about life.

I can sit under a full moon,
or in a pile of snow,
and I can feel 5 years old and 15 years old and 100 years old
but no matter how old I am
there is still so much to figure out.

But I can stand up,
for what I believe in, and who I believe in,
because I do believe,
in people, and in science, and in nature, and the in world,
and also, I believe in myself.

I can be shallow
and I can be sad.

I think if you read my poems you might understand.

Miles

I taste each word.
I savor each sentence.
The wit
The grace
The thought
HowWhy?
(am I still holding on to this)

I think with my brain and I feel with my heart
(just like everyone else)
but
(it's not like everyone else)
because...
(i'm not everyone else)

i mix the present with the memories into an odd brilliant package like nothing i've ever known before.
And my mom gives me a small sympathetic smile as i sink on to the floor and put my hands on my head and say
"whywhywhywhywhywhywhy?"
(does it have to be like this)
(is this so beautiful)

Friday, December 17, 2010

Prey

A puddle of indigo
Just leaked out of me
*well, that's embarrassing*
not really.

That's me.

I jumped,
and they said,
"You're Bold"
and
"You're Brave"
So I smile to cover the shame that is leaking out of me.
So it doesn't mix with the indigo.

A bit of the Atlantic finds its way to my tear ducts,
and then is has found my lips.
drip.
drop.

The music notes are green.
Such a deep green.

But when the
cobalt
that flows through my veins
to the vessels of my heart
escapes my body;
that is when I am raw.


And to Think Thursdays were my Favorite

It was a day,
when I had to remind myself,
"Nobody died. This is going to be okay. At least nobody died".
And then I tell myself,
"TomorrowisFriday TomorrowisFriday youcanmakeit TomorrowisFriday".
Except,
Then I remember that somebody did die.
Then I remember that people are always dying.
And then I remember that Friday is just one day closer to dying.
And people die on Fridays all the time.
And now, I'm not making myself feel better.
And then I think,
why should I feel good?
Everyone is dying.
Always.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

My Dad is The Bird Guy

Chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee.
Bob-white, Bob-white.
Kill-deer, kill-deer, kill-deer.
Whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will.
Lil-lee-lee-lee-lee.
Lil-lee, lil-lee.
When do I get my wings?