Discretionary Love

The saintless hold a disdain for history. Unfixed hearts pop and cramp along an axis which circumnavigates the ruin after terrible decisions. Proximity is better

On the long exhale home, your blood flows freely again in an artery opened with strength of metal, deftly done by the surgeon. We return

I don’t want to throw your words back at you, as I sit here, alone, spinning my records with thoughts of you in my head.

If you open me now, she says, you’ll see all my yesterdays carefully put up like home-canned tomatoes, peaches, pickles, beans—the bounty of summer stored

I remember 17, working weekends, my first real job, girl-boss of Housekeeping, trading soiled cloths for clean. First lover, I met you there. College boy,

in an alternate universe / I am 12 / and I do not seek suffering in starvation / believing hunger is my superpower / I

Early birds crave the first rays. Worms pray for mercy. Leftovers beg for attention. I’m left with the waste. I seize a single streamer, tie

They say hair holds memories And if that’s true I’m calling my barber. I want to erase the feeling of your fingers on my scalp

Leaves litter concrete bed, having succumbed to wind’s ecstasy. & we’re left picking unstrung emotions across the room, tooth-picking bliss, reliving every kiss. You can

No words in the mail, no words onscreen, nada in the tête-à-tête of fingers embracing in the waiting room. Silence disperses us like tear gas.