empty puddles

the day is indigo
and rain has found
its home on my skin
you are everything
I am missing
I long for new
continuity
that recognizes me
no umbrella
just a rocking chair
I watch as horses
clear the meadow
no reason for vigilance
alone with my thoughts
and all these empty puddles
dangerous silence
yet
I've changed too much
to let you in
but inside
floor boards ache with age
they disagree with me

eclipse

the black and white of
eclipse
the movies we picture
ourselves in
the empty rooms
echo
and unfold
the gift of silence
turning gold
pieces of daylight
and boredom bared
we are something
more than counted
breath
we must be of use
not just dreams without
root
hungry souls
silent phones
that won't convey
what written words
can say

morning journal

oh, my love
your sweater on the wall hook
is a ghost in the early morning hours
I wanted to wear it
but I left it there like a monument
I wanted to ask you to stay
but my mind was sleepy
my skin is cold without yours
my fear intact because in morning
light its a little harder to see
the faultlines
all I feel for you is still safely
inside of me
for now
the fireplace is still warm
our wine glass half full
interrupted by a ripe midnight
moment where our breathing
was perfect songs
the night 
was ransomed too soon
as rain washed away 
your footsteps at dawn

ocean

why did you have to run so far away from me
for so long
why couldn't you just take the time
to call home
I gave you space
I didn't think you'd forget so
easily
and I still dream of walking
by the ocean
salt on our skin
you next to me
time simply ran out
on you
on me 
on us
you haunt my dreams
you steal my breath
you wasted us my love

how can that sky
be split in two
still fall on me
but not on you
in my favorite picture
there you are by the ocean
I wish that it could carry me
to you
that option is no longer open
left with double questions
too much left unspoken
in the lonely night cell
of tainted light
I wonder
why did you have to go
so far away from me

interlude

did all our romance take a leave
or just fall through 
all the cracks in the floor
and what happened to light
did Autumn pull it away
as winter interrupted
declaring her darkness
needed bodies to hold
did love break or just die
because if it did
i need to know
i shouldn't look
for a pulse here anymore

sleepwalkers

we danced for the moon
the bed didn't know
we were naked

we won't tell anyone
our visions
or versions of sadness
they would be 
dramatic and sound 
too sad
and that blue violin's
already broken

forget about the keys
we left in the windows
and metal beds that fell
because no one loved
in them

too busy at the word machine
the piano was calling
saying that California 
has eyes of loneliness

but we are not lost
just sleepwalkers
in a daydream of a 
daydreamer

seems
nothing can wake us

bartender blues

poetry always in his pocket
getting washed in denim
turning blue
love, the language his pen
relates to
bares his soul writing about
loneliness at bars and pretty
girls that can't love
emotional blackmail and bitter
scars
sits in his underwear 
on his backporch smoking
half medicated cigarettes
staining his hands
writing his bartender blues
finding clarity, sanity
beneath shimmering stardust
can't sleep, heart's too full
of stories alive with passion
and pain
with his front row seat to
a million walk away's 
I'm still looking for a flicker
a small light in his eyes
to know if he can see me