Wordle #436

As a child I used to stand in front of the mirror
stripping my identities off layer by layer
until all that remained of my ego was my odyl.
Come morning I would gather up my potential,
my masks and the scarred boxes that held them
delighted in the knowledge that I could be anyone.

I survived because I was never still,
because my dreams were too big for lists,
too big to cram into my bloody left pocket.
I loved but the universe did not think
to grant me love in return.
My heart opened and closed like a trap
but I was so afraid of what I might catch
that I put up warning signs all over.
I fell in love with the love of others.
I became a voyeur, a listener, a story-teller.
I shared my favorite things
with my favorite people and held my breath.

My trust comes in waves,
it either is or it is not
depending on my mood.
My trust is not in the goodness of man,
which I have no right to judge,
but in the cyclic nature of all things great and small.
A man can tell lies but he will always be a man.

Spell

How long can yearning satisfy a reckless host?

I drink my reflection from your exasperated pupils

Wondering if the spell will surrender your name.

I am not indifferent to the depth

Of your primal sentimentality

And I have more passion than I have shame

For there is nothing I wouldn’t do

To strip the rind shrouding your heart.

(Bitter is not the only flaw inherent in poison)

It would be such a tragedy to die before you

That you might wake with only the reminder

Of what once was a lifetime of pivotal conjunctions

The only thing you can believe is that the fire

Spares no man his curiosity

But it is a small price to pay for love.

Coexist

Art By: Patrick Tang

I lick the underside of your rage

Those wounds which are still

Soluble in saliva, those wounds

Which still scar the breath

If only I could circumvent

All retaliatory pain

But your circumcised nerves

Provide no protection

*

We are always ready to resume

The ecstasy of war, it is our intent

To coexist despite exposure

Generosity is a consequence of love

And I am willing despite hunger

*

Maybe it’s just my imagination about this poem. Anyhow I really struggled with writing today lots of distracting pain

Traitor

If you could grasp

My innuendo

Would we

Lie down together

Captive in

The licentious swell

Of our undressed egos

*

If you understood

The fragility

Of my trust

Would you seek

Favor over sentiment?

*

If I heeded the rumors

Would I turn away

Before your impropriety

Deadened my spirit?

Or would I cast

My thirsting heart

Piecemeal

Into the sediment?