blue line

a star fell when you shut the door of your old car
you were blue, so blue baby
that's what you said you were

left me with candy
and melancholy for a name
left me with nothing
but memory and moonlight
and a love un-ordained 

night melodies own me now
my prayers wrapped in barbed wire
so I'll sell your old truck
and your sawmill
but it won't be enough

no more loving
or side mouth kissing
no more on the road fudge eating
no more loving you, love
we simply ran out of time

but I'll read how you loved me
lover
in every blue line 

May 25 2016  @vanesadawn

this is for all those who keep the hand written notes from all those that once loved them & all those beautiful goodbyes

late

butterflies dance, a summer ambience
but are broken pianos still pianos ?

thoughts have lives that zig-zag
like airplanes on any given day

we sweat for dreams
walking past flower 
gardens
our skin turning leather
as childhood runs behind us

getting directions crossed
as conversations within
ourselves
slip, shuffle
becoming a crooked kind
of sustenance 
leaves us fevered for water

the ocean lies before us
the sky wants to dance
with kites
but is strangling on 
chemtrails 

and we're surprised by light
that arrives too early
but maybe we're just late

 
 

 

like the sky

I breathed you in deep
could feel you cling 
inside me
but like a drug that 
seduces
I only wanted more
I can't call it anything
but there's rivers in
your eyes
and they fill up my veins
all those stars watching me
watch you from my window
as you build paper walls
and silent streets
for all your dreams
that never sleep
you're beautiful like the sky
and
I don't think words can reach 

 

Dirty Gossamer

the color of wonder was a wayward snowflake 
escaping through a crude windowpane
whimsical magic in a child's hands

heaven was tattooed on your thoughts
laced with lavender and a belt of moonshine

you would see your children at dawn 
after your joy ride through cold dark
and stars

winter would be a lion
but you still had time
it was autumn yet

your love that used to ride the train
to meet you would retreat into a moonless
world and the sun would become a ghost
you would be missed more than she loved
her children

your love would starve
and keep company with midnight
intoxicated with the memory 
of the year you first met
without your love to satisfy her
lust or loneliness
hopelessness would settle into her
and her cotton dresses were a manuscript
of the way you once broke through to the
sweetness underneath

weeping to the sound of night rain
on her roof
her employment is to keep your memory
alive
she'll forget the color of the sky
rock herself to sleep 
for you won't be there
she'll be sleepless in a red kingdom
and mourn with your old whiskey bottle
because it too craves your lips 

copyright May 2016   Vanessa Peterson