we crossed paths like spiders and our webs intertwined, housing an extraordinary amount of winged creatures. it was beautifully temporary. i let out a line and dropped away.

i was stretched out like a garden.
you were pulling the weeds.

the table is set
with even, straight lines
measured out spaces
the dullest knives

then it was evening,
but now it is night,
sink dripping,
the occasional headlight
moving through the windowpane

i dreamt about you last night
(& i fell out of bed twice)

...
in the same way that dirt beneath your fingernails
proves that you're alive

every winter's ending seems impossible,
but it's merely just unwritten
& i'm hoping those days were the final paragraphs,
waiting for the closure of punctuation
in the form of an open window

lovely with a capital L

north carolina's state motto is this : "to be, rather than to seem."

so work out your faith with fear & trembling.

we talk about living as if it were dying instead. we sharpen our swords upon our teeth, cutting off our tongues & losing all power of speech. and with our silent thoughts we finally speak life.

i was a bird when you found me & a bird when you left
no one told me the direction to fly
& i have been across the country
& my wings are tired & weak & often i only want to find somewhere warm & dry to sleep
as if i were only a piece of your scenery
one you do not take in as you are on your way to work
but one you would miss if i disappeared
stopped singing
escaped for the season
but this winter i am planning on sticking around
because for once i have built a home

"But to want everything is in fact to want nothing. One has to specify, otherwise choices are of no significance: they are not choices." -Thomas Merton

you were always a loose cannon,
but i think that this time you were using me as ammunition.

"i do not think i would miss you if you were to disappear," said the ship to her anchor.

it was a well constructed cocoon, but i got tired of sleeping.

the sky broke.

you drew an X across my throat.

another tickmark on your prison wall.

we were swallowing dandelions with hopes of growing roots.

you were just a skeleton
i stretched the skin over your body
but the bones & tendons pushed through such a thin layer
& i spent the rest of the night sewing you back together