The Science of Me

She melts a hole, pulling affogatto shots through two scoops of vanilla ice cream

She melts a hole, pulling affogatto shots through two scoops of vanilla ice cream Cream and white and toffee-brown paint coats the interior walls of apartments leased for the summer Orange juice in an Italian glass pitcher, punctuating a privileged life Her fingers spread out under the moon; prepared butterfly wings, taught between pins She slowly stuffs handfuls of everything she owns into…

I feel you forgetting me

I feel you forgetting me The silent transition out of REM that only cats can hear I’m not sure if I can see this ever stopping Police lights that continue beyond their sirens Are you sure you want to remove the items in the trash permanently? Please take your time, there is much to see Hot hair stuck to the napping cheeks of toddlers Your oldest fears are the worst ones

Splashing hands in clear water affect Sprite commercial vibes

Splashing hands in clear water affect Sprite commercial vibes Pulled down into her by the manufacture tag on his jeans Evening light stains the bed in thin pink lines Milk-made planets roll in their coffee mugs Across the room smoke falls heavy from her mouth in hungry ropes I tattoo the walls with shadow puppets The frayed and silent topography of shoddy loom-work

I’ve always harbored a deep mistrust of eagles

I’ve always harbored a deep mistrust of eagles Rinsing stem-on roses in the sink I look over my shoulder A tensely wrought cast-iron guardrail contracts in sub zero Dividing short stacks into even triangles I fall asleep into bodies of water like missing women Made nervous by pastries which appear to have nipples Never unwrap me the candy in a dead relative’s inherited purse

I always wanted a Doberman ever since Oliver and Company

I always wanted a Doberman ever since Oliver and Company Women with over-lined lips wearing gold hoops at brunch Sheer glitter stockings scream up her legs like champagne bubbles The soft violence of pastel offal in piles We observe each other, smiling through handmade binoculars Tulips lean from window boxes sarcastically alluding to sex Butterflies pepper the hips of co-eds I open my…

Hunch down into tide pools revealing your butt crack

Hunch down into tide pools revealing your butt crack Nostalgia sounds like a medicine Under the covers hallucinating sugar-sand gumdrops   A cartoon kitten blinks back at you from kindergarten Siblings beat each other and lie to their parents We pretend to keep secrets Remembering how the red ones always just tasted red

She’s beauty like the moon out after midday over old world architecture in late spring Lips desperately quick, invasively colonizing your mouth with moss to silence the screams Humid and full of echoes, her calves tread indoor pool water in slow circles Her face clenches into a fist, brass knuckle brows tattooed blue-black with stars Chest crumpled, a pillow still warm from her tossing and…

Staircases curl inwards like lovers backs

Staircases curl inwards like lovers backs Playing pretend for important guests we eat fancy ice cubes with flowers inside Pink washing my interior walls the way they were at that hotel in Greece I am under the influence of neon directives Flower heads dip and buck like housewives leaping from mice Thirty-eight pictures of couples kissing collected into an album The shadow of her head is…

Old books collected out flat on estate sale dining tables

Old books collected out flat on estate sale dining tables A cookie-brown history lesson in sun baked sepia With closed eyes I can’t tell if she might be dead or alive Black lace spread out beneath a swaying pearl Abstract things grow up from pink beds reaching, waxy Sand dusts my thighs powder soft like fur I contemplate the expression in my mother’s wedding photos Light slithers across…

I try not to spill

I try not to spill Milk-matching my tea to the title page of an open book Pressing the seam flat with my thumb like pulling down clay I’ve never seen something as sweet as you Head pushed up into the corners of my vision A celebration of ghosts haunts us The way winter dusk seems sky blue, you can smell it in pictures I want to hold the dearest parts of you while you watch from a…

He sleeps in their bed while she swims

He sleeps in their bed while she swims

Holds a gun to her head, she turns over

Stitch forget-me-not’s onto my hands in black thread

Cause pain with your familiar scenery

I sort handfuls of uncarved, brass keys

The euphemism of mystery that undoes creative souls

Screaming, “Ladies and Gentlemen!” into an empty room

A mistake of Christmas lights affects Amityville

A mistake of Christmas lights affects Amityville

Cigarette butts tipping into an old wine bottle on the porch

Time elapses quickly

Rotting plants or cleaning bones in places where people have never lived

He buys bags of ice from the gas station closest to home

Jeans melt-wet red and blue from Popsicle fingers

Scientists who died before discovery

Night, after night, after night

He slips below the…

She smiles out from the hole in her windshield sheepish to still be alive

She smiles out from the hole in her windshield sheepish to still be alive

A pink signature slides down the side of police vehicles

The staircase leading down into neon reality

Stadium lights at the high school turn on early

Pink and purple knees dangling from trees like sunsets

Do you watch her eyes or her mouth when she speaks?

I really like you

I really like you

Long term exposure has gifted me night vision in hindsight

Death comes in threes, decorating the walls with shadows

You wont’t cut your hair after it becomes white

When they feed the fish at the aquarium

When they feed the fish at the aquarium

Divers pressing their hands to the glass comparing palms

Indoor plants shoved up against windows like captives

Drawing smiles in hothouse steam with their leaves

My eye is still bruised and I am still quiet

Wrapping myself in the gossamer of my nakedness

I watch metal ships recede into the sky above my neighbor’s house

The night comes out of the corners…

Pleasure, in orange bubble letters written across her crop top

Pleasure, in orange bubble letters written across her crop top

Rain falls too fast inner city

She laughs with her friends in the park by the freeway onramp

It was nice to hear your voice

Adolescents traveling the precipice of adulthood hang out from second story hotel rooms

Wind in hair rain in hair hair in fingers wet and wild wound round wrists

In a lake pulling freshwater seaweed drag up…