Waiting for

Laced with sun-dried tears

And a scalding message from the moon

The secret of you

Lies dormant.

I will use man-made claws

And the spine of a bear

To pry the untold story's end

With eyes closed.

The secret must be saved

But never revealed

Unless I can remember

Where my own secret wound up.

Mine once wandered like an avalanche

And it slipped through a crack

It made for itself

The sweater it wore in July.

Yours smells like pine

And the child aching to escape me

Is begging for a tiny handful

Of its light.

I have a dangerous but exciting suspicion

That looking into the secret of you

Will see it wringing itself of sweat

That its scent will be adolescently familiar.

Oakes

Sip the tinted pill they demand;

Tilt.

Feel your freedom like black-blue sand

Palm it

Squeeze

And see how easily it is overcome.

Make the apologies you wish for.

You are the bigger man

If you believe in forgiveness.

You have a padlocked mouth

Filled with keys

Each named in a number

You somehow know.

The beats of tongue

To temple

Of righteous

To hand-picked by sisters

This is how you were delivered

And I pray you the healing

I know you now need.

I once more embrace you,

My brother.

The morning I was forty-five seconds late to class

With all the majesty

Of your lore

I found myself taken with hair.

The bright crispness of it;

It's impeccable worth.

This pillow of a chest

Is both manmade

And natural

And it smells like a correct answer.

If the morning were any brighter

I would have to lie about it:

The brilliance of your palm

Will always take precedence.

The Inadequate Guilt Of Troy Davis

I am no better
Than any citizen
Of this country.

I am just a man.

A man without a gun,
Bullet, knife, needle, or
Yearning to find revenge.

And I wish to stay this way.

I am just a man.

No better.
Hoping to be contested
For my proposed sameness.

To the boy I used to believe in

You have finally chosen a life

Which allows me

To fall out of love with you.

Thank you,

It is a needed centripetal force,

I could never have overcome

Myself.

My fingers used to ache

Within the memory

Of your locks.

The likes of which

I am now free.

I wish you a smile,

Clarity,

And an avoidance of the judgement

I cannot offer

Myself.

Before you leave

Into the forever of my hindsight

Please know:

I did love you.

Your goals were attainable.

And the two were never

Mutually exclusive.

Hard as you tried

To make them so.

Backbone

If, somewhere, there are poems

Written about your smile

I do not want to read them.

I am too scared

To find out

Where it will end.

Withdrawn Jupiter

I complicatedly want you to know,

Brother mayhem,

That tonight I wanted

To fuck you

As if God had given me

A gift

Which he would now judge me on.

I intended to score

A perfect 10.

But your pretenses were un-vacant.

Your mouth belonged to a sister.

Our paths were,

Inevitably,

Beginning to part.