Nightwalker

Treading softly

and leaping

from shadow to shadow,

existing only in places dark,

you find a sunken repose

in the folded corners of my heart:

a welcome stranger that I didn’t invite –

I only ever lose you in the moonlight.

Nightmares

My nightmares

are my own;

unfelt and unseen

yet the tremors

are heard in the morn,

dull echoes

hidden in sharp alarms,

falling to sleep

waking to rise

life to day

death to night,

ending its story

as we all do

in our fatal haste to new

Wrecked

Sometimes,

I remember that

the radio continues to play

as a car wrecks,

and I think that’s

how we often live –

ravaged by pain,

aware of our destruction,

and, yet,

humming along.

VD 1/4

You are a snow day,

a game-saving buzzer shot,

the first sip of coffee,

and the last page

of my favorite book,

when good defeats evil

and love wins.

Unity

I think our trouble

with “unifying”

is that we glorify

a beautiful, abstract

unity,

but never —

never —

choose unity

above

sharing each and every

fleeting condemnation

that occurs to us,

and thereby

keep unity

from ever

becoming.

Staying

She pulls me

gently

down a well-worn path,

littered with ferns and old letters,

and brings me to

a flowery clearing.

“This is always where they leave,”

she says,

indicating the barren field.

“Yes,” I say,

“this is it.”

“This is what?”

“This is a perfect place

to build a home.”

Halloween

Breathing heavy,

I wait for light to leave the sky –

longing for your nighttime spell

a brutal, tortured tongue-tie.

You haunt me with your drawling voice

dark and yet unseen,

you disturb my foolish, failing heart

and call it Halloween.

Headline of Satire V

Presidential Candidates All Great Options, Voters Unsure Which Promising Party to Vote For