Symptoms

Stomach churning, lungs twitching,

and the heart stops. Head cannot wrap

around any concept, so it contorts

itself trying and collapses in on itself.

Fingers shake and skin crawls, eyes

draw shut and jaw aches.

Don’t you know, dear, it is you

who is the disease for these symptoms?

Bird

It would be now, again, that

I become most prolific. Blood

always runs more smoothly

from the mouth when the body

is wounded. Meanwhile, the heart,

most vulnerable of all, forgot

to lock the cage in which it resides.

Now it falls from its perch,

and ceases its clenching.

Equals

Tonight, you become poetry.

Once again, I have given every

bit and you are an egg

short of a dozen. You said “Not

like them, no, I promise.” Yet

you are a carbon copy. Mister

Famous Anonymous, I am done

here, Mister Liar, Mister I’m Sorry.

I am not looking for an inferior,

nor a superior. I thought, for a moment,

you were my equal.

The Sum

Since you, nothing impresses

me.  I cannot be wooed by the stars

nor the leaves that whisper

in my ears as they drop to the ground.

The brightness of the sun

cannot compete with that of your smile.

I live and die with your voice,

how it so easily portrays that

which cannot be seen.  How can simple

atoms, chemical compounds, shapes,

colors, lights, any of it, compare

to what it is which makes up you?

Missing

Some part of you is missing.

I’ve searched in your eyes,

in your hands, in the mirror,

but somehow I’ve let you down:

I’ve stolen from you and I don’t know

what it is I’m to give back.

Show me what I’ve stolen,

describe its shape, its color,

its sound.  I will look in the center

of the sun, in the depths

of the ocean, if I can only find

it for you.

Some part of you is missing,

but I haven’t a clue what.