ossify

and all i felt was the slowly

exploding bomb in my face (a fairly

inconsequential setback, perhaps)

*Published by dadakuku on 7/8/24

and maybe it was too hard

for you

to stop the ivy

from spreading

from choking off

the oak

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 6/25/24

solstice or the inferno of same same

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 6/25/24

so you crush moonlight

i too

fight the past tense

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 6/2/24

lorem ipsum

the forests

i have created

the forests

i cannot burn

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 6/2/24

everything is on fire

or not. the water remains in the same damn

decimal place

*Published by dadakuku on 6/1/24

it's like when

a song slowly weaves itself

into your body

your bones

do you accept? you hear

what? you may ask

the gift of being unraveled

and respun into something more

like when the night

gives birth to a sky full of stars

or when we set fire

to a pantheon of unholy gods

*Published by Skyway Journal on 5/25/24

i'm here

said the crow to the dagger to the worms who

ate

you

in

(side)

out

*Published by dadakuku on 5/16/24

the ways we hate why the moon hides

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 3/9/24

a human

but also

an orchid

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 3/9/24

to feel peace

again

poppies bloom

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 3/9/24

soft rain

i give myself

permission to fail

*Published by Haikuniverse on 3/13/24

a lobster boiling, unaware

of course

death has many names

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 3/9/24

saw(dust)

but then you remember the taste of ginger

how it felt upon your tongue

*Published by dadakuku on 3/6/24

prison math

i was 17

& you were 28

*Published by Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) on 12/31/23

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