Post 81 - Cruel is Casual (poem)

The black on that butterfly's wings
only serves to promote the glistening beauty
of its iridescent blue.

It fans those wings
with laconic grace
until

my dog curiously nips
at it.  Leaving
a cripple.  The snap

unintended.  The result?

Fatal.

Post 80 - The Day You Were Born (poem)

You arrived without a name
because with your mother's stubborn
aplomb you punched
your ticket into this world
when you damn well felt like it.

She says you look like our grandfather.
I see it too.  The steadfast strength of a sugar tramp,
and your father.  You are born
of the mountains and the sea.  From

a deep legacy of kindness,

compassion, and human decency you draw.  The world
bettered by your presence.  Now sleep.  Rest
to tackle the life
ahead.  It will be magic,

just like you.

Post 79 - Cactus (poem)

CACTUS

You see me
in the desert, happy
to be alone.

You forget me
for a time and discover
I still thrive.

But I need
water, I need
touch, I need
connection.

Ignore me
and one day you will find
a brown, shrivelled husk
with no purpose
left but to casually
hurt you.

Post 78 - Love (poem)

LOVE

It's not a shield,
it's a boat.
Weathered,

beaten,
as two captains try
to keep it afloat
in black, angry seas.

Together they must
commit lest it sink,
capsize,
dash to splinters
upon rocks.

If either is tempted
into the sea
by merfolk,
or thirst,
Sirens
or the promise of cool currents
they will discover

the lie that lives
beneath the waves.
Regret
has no power to right
an abandoned ship.

And so two captains work
together to survive
a world that wants their boat to fail.

Day 80 - The Real Vampires (poem)

They don't want
your blood.  They want
your stories.  Head nodding
in patient

understanding
as you tell of pill addiction,
a heart stripped by careless boys, children
you wish
were never born.
Heartless

they are, feeding
on your raw, bleeding
life.

Day 79 - Want (poem)

WANT

Asleep,
your knee shifts gently
outward.  You wear

a parted robe.
It slips down a delicate path, laconic.
Your thigh exposed,
but draped

in shadows that draw me
with their promise.

Day 78 - Near Death (poem)

NEAR DEATH

I saw the taillights, gathered
like geese, distracting me
for a moment
from the car laid across the middle
of the road
like a woman reclining
on a bearskin rug...relaxed
and ridiculous, but

there it was.

And I nearly plowed into it, visions
of fire and glass, rolling and death
flashing as I pulled left, spun out
in a median I was fortunate to reach
while my heartrate
stayed curiously unaffected.  Somewhat
nonplussed, there was nothing to do,
but get back on the road and drive
home.  After
I stopped off for a diet coke.