between dreams I track

my past across padded plots

of baby tongues stuck to frigid poles covered in lucky smiles &

flying over oceans of kisses from family that I knew once a year &

plucking grass from the lawn of pasty sunshine flowers & cherry red pimples on noses begging for eye contact & the cry of a teenage orchestra calling for Motzart &

tales of constellations

of Orpheus and Euridice & floods of color painting

the setting sun in longing & twisting crowns out of buttery weeds &

screaming my childhood across the summer river & and watching the wind sweep away the time

that has left too long ago

ECHO TWO

Salt in a wound is the essence of my shores

A steady current of barnacles
Cutting my feet so that

Crimson blends with kelp

But it never scars

And sometimes I wonder if I truly bled

                      Or if a scarlet bird flew above me
A reflection on the water
On the elixir of the deep sea.

ECHO THREE

Through the downpour
Of that night in September
The four of us walked without coats.

We crossed oceans and sunsets
Until his curls were straightened
And black streaks ran down my cheeks.

Her freckles nearly washed away
As she and the boy without shoes walked zig zag
Talking of religion and America.

And you, my brother,
Walked beside me in an almost sprint
While we blasted Taylor

And screamed of heartbreak
Out into the sea.
Hearts full of salt and rain.

Soaked cotton and denim
By the time we reached the swingset
The chains were ice

And we soared up
Lids frozen shut
Lost in the eye of the storm