choke

look at that rose

look at it

burning alive

*Published by dadakuku on 12/18/23

not sorry

the freedom

in saying

just that

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 12/6/23

just a nickel

for the hounds of hell & here

take all the rain in me

*Published by dadakuku on 10/31/23

foxglove

as if life could ever

be dull

*Published by Scarlet Dragonfly Journal on 9/17/23

if only my lungs could cleave each clove

*

then the dawn is nothing more than a particle of an orchid

*

in the bark of a tree like a comma

*

sage or magenta you pick the cause of deceit

*

could pass for gold the charred sea of lust

*Published in the 2023 edition of Under the Basho (PostKu section)

but i

was the wild vine

of twilight

*

ripped begonia

who's gonna

love you now

*Published by horror senryu journal on 8/15/23

it's not what you think it's about

my hands were wrapped tightly around

the vessel of white clay on the wheel

(spin, spin)

i brought it up and down and then opened the edges

ever

so carefully

i shaped it and pressed my palms

to the side and took the most loving

dips of my yellow sponge in

the water bucket before me to gently form

the outside and the inside, and my GOD

it was beautiful

but the edges were not even

in fact, they were never even, and i

dipped my fingers into the clay without taking

my time to center this lump upon the wheel

i reformed and cut what i could save

tried to love

tried to fix

tried so hard again to love

that unusable pile of mud

but then reminded myself that it's nothing

truly

a few minutes and a few dollars down the drain

literally

and now when people ask if i did everything

that i could do to save my marriage

i shake my head

laugh

and quietly walk away

*Published by Skyway Journal on 8/5/23

then there are bluebells and butterflies

and maybe

this is the only way i know

how to speak

within the company of other humans

i am water

do you know what i mean?

here but nowhere

and always out of grasp

fingers running and running endlessly along

a creek's bed to no avail

*Published by Skyway Journal on 8/5/23

honeysuckle

finally a quiet

place to grieve

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 8/2/23

a single violet

now everything

is precarious

*Published by dadakuku on 8/1/23

 the ache behind my last life

as a rose

*

when every shade of night fades into us

*

cut grass

the drudgery

of sameness

*

dandelion fluff

sometimes i just

want to be

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 7/30/23

but it has always been this way

that the bones of the dead

nourish the land

*

lilac bush

i no longer have

illusions about my goodness

*

dearest maple

i am tired

of being the wind

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 5/25/23

acid mt. fuji

my room is dark, save for the glow

of my computer screen

& i'm moving to music

moving with music as if

i were no longer human

but a verdant leaf or hydrangea

or a pile of dried earth that lifts & twists

with each burst of hot wind

i touch

the air behind the air & finally

remember the space

between my lengthy dreams

& you weren't there

as you had previously always been

& perhaps

this was simply a chance

to be the person i was

before

before

*Published by Skyway Journal on 4/24/23

not even spring

my hands rush to greet

the freshly bloomed daffodils

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 5/9/23

dandelion patch

what it means

to endure

*Published in the April 2023 issue of Stardust Haiku

did you know

that peonies can live

for more than 100 years

and sometimes

a poem doesn't need to be

about anything more

than that

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 4/23/23

before the wildflowers

i am only

a shadow

*

and then i turned to him and said

listen to the highway

it sounds like death

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 4/19/23

 under a

growl you

adorn me

*

the mud

above the moss

above the corpse

*Published by horror senryu journal on 3/10/23

 all my wrath receding tides

*Published by horror senryu journal on 2/2/23

i was and wasn’t

the moth

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 2/20/23

to feel // be

night burning into

radium

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 2/20/23

but you were gasoline draped in cyanide

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 2/20/23

a pond is just a

pond and you were

just a hunter looking

//for meat

*Published by dadakuku on 2/22/23

almost forty

still learning

how to breathe

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 2/20/23 

 universe

have you ever

unraveled yourself

just to feel

the pulse

of a better life

*Published by Scarlet Dragonfly Journal on 2/19/23

avalanche

when i gaze

into my past

*

winter

but i am always

ravenous

*

then watch me dissolve into the cosmos

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 2/2/23

to deconstruct

a butterfly

a bomb

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 2/1/23

moon on fire

i still dream

about you

*Published by horror senryu journal on 2/3/23

 scent of pine away from the hustle

*

until i can no longer mourn this dried up river

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 2/2/23

yknow i crack night like an egg

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 2/1/23 

deep into the umbra

i learn to

love again

*

arctic

this bed

without you

*

when the wind slows down the milkweed

*Published in the winter 2023 edition of The Bamboo Hut

frost-tipped birdsong

my favorite shade

of indigo

*Published in the January 2023 issue of Stardust Haiku

(insert)

sorrow & the tongues of hawks

*Published by dadakuku on 1/17/23