Mementos

As a kid I craved mentos.

While the generic fruit flavors were nice, mint was ideal.

I'd line them up along freezer shelves, balanced on top of ice cube trays,

only to forget them hours later.

But the best part was rediscovering them,

Unsticking their cold, smooth shells from the ice,

hesitating until my fingers went numb,

then finally tasting ice 

and that cold candy rush.

Agniologist (Sonnet #2)

People don’t always understand girls, they

Don’t like what they give yet don’t stop taking

They toss around words, it’s all fun and play

What they don’t see are human hearts breaking

She flutters her peacock feather lashes

Sweetly sharpened words raining like glitter

Behind red lips and Gucci sunglasses

She’s competition, not just some quitter

He smiles in her direction, or maybe

Comments on her perfection, and he’ll say

“Darling” or “sweet” or “you and me baby”

Twelve tweets, six squees, and sees him the next day

He gives her a glance, not a word spoken

Passes right by and there she is broken

Sonnet Series

     I've been tossing around the idea to write a crown of sonnets. This involves writing sonnets that each begin with the last line of the previous sonnet, then lacing them all together into a circle by ending the final sonnet with the first line of the first sonnet. Specifically, I've been trying to figure out what's referred to as a heroic crown, in which all the repeated lines that begin and end a total of 14 sonnets form a separate 15th sonnet. I'll be posting them out of order at first, revising as I go, and maybe I'll never get there, but I hope you bear with me. 

CO

Lying alone in my room with my iPod

Cord threaded up my arm, circling my throat

One phone in my ear, the other dangling off the bed

Spitting half of a song out into the stale air

The shapes dripping out, piling on the floor, unheard and forgotten.

All I see is the grey shadow cast by the fan on the ceiling,

Blades reaching out like crepuscular rays.

Crepuscular. That's your word of the day.

Look it up yourself. I don't feel like moving.

My apathy is too heavy,

Taking up too much space, 

Its chasms pushing against

Lungs barely expanding enough to allow new air inside.

Beneath the weight, deep in that dark, my heart is a canary,

Tiny ribcage gasping,

Lost in the black,

The song suffocated out of me.

Stutter

you are so sweet

so sweet

dancin and movin to that beat

that beat

the boys and the girls watch each other eat 

but they really just want to watch each other

SOLO

broken bits of music

broken broken

stuttering skipping

skipping cd

sipping tea 

but it's herbal, don't worry

the boys and girls watch each other eat

but they really just want to watch each other sleep

you are so sweet

but i just had to leave

broken broken

stuttering words

skipping along the edge of the sidewalk

avoid the cracks

the people

altogether

there's a meat market down the street

the boys and girls watch each other eat

but they really just want to

i saw your eyes

they asked a question

it wasn't mine

i didn't answer

too many things are broken so i leave the silence intact

-effe ves ent la ghte

Inspired by Ivory

You're the salt in the ocean
The sun on my skin
You're the sage on red cliffs
and the faces within

You're the sweetest herbal tea
You're the will to my way
You're the gaps in my memory
You're the bloodhound's deep bay

You're my most favorite
The goodnight to my moon
You're the sunshine after rain in April
You're the Johnny to my June

You're the books in my library
The hero to my story
He's fighting, he's flying
Sword flashing in light
All odds against him
Surrounded by flame
But one can't help but love him
And know he'll win just the same

I will keep on trying
Because you're all I want
I don't mind falling
Because you'll pick me up
Love is fear
But it must be faced
A world without you
Is a much worse fate

I'm happier than a clam
just being your pearl
More free than a pirate
with you as my world
You're dark chocolate cadbury
You're the bubbles to my bath
You're a mormon game of poker
and I'm losing fast

Your heavy shoes are easier to call boots
You're one country song I know all of the words to
You're the unresolved notes that characterize jazz
Asking an unknown question that everyone understands

If passion is poison, I'm dying by degrees
You're a brand new box of Betty Crocker brownies
You're the dream when I wake that I can't describe, can't explain,
can't really remember but want to return to anyways

I will keep on loving you
Because I can't forget
I don't mind falling
I already did when we met
Love is fear
But it must be faced
A world without you
Is a much worse fate

I wish we'd never age
I wish I slept better
I wish we were rich
but I guess we are when we're together
You're more than I deserve

If you're Abraham Lincoln
then I'm your hat
Famous for being yours
no more or less than that
No war we can't endure

A ruler, a law,
the final last straw
Pretending no defeat
but people fighting in the streets
You're the spark of a revolution
The glow of Olympic fire
The march hare to my madness
My streetcar named desire

I will keep on loving you
Because you're all I need
I don't mind falling
Just be there to catch me
If love is fear
Shoot me through the heart
Only the brave surrender
Death cannot tear us apart

~effervescent laughter
patterned after "Ivory Road" by King Charles
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnBIBPEpCDw)

Smoke and Mirrors

I'm so very grown up

Hair undone

Pumps on the table

Roll up lies between my fingers, and

Inhale, exhale.

"Don't you worry about me,

I'm fine,

Things just don't work out."

I can see the reflection of the smoke in your skeptic eyes

But you talk about the weather,

The neighbors,

The price of tea in China.

Inhale, exhale.

Sometimes I try to hold it in until my throat closes and my eyes water

and the sadness seeps from my skin.

'Cuz people don't want to breathe in that kind of secondhand smoke.

They'd much rather put me in glass boxes

And paint red X's over their doorways.

It's a social taboo,

Don't say a word,

Just hold your breath and smile.

My heart's beating too hard,

My lungs are breathing too loudly,

Rattling the tangled up sentences

Buried beneath an unfamiliar voice.

My smile is suffocating me.

But my lips are addicted

So who cares if the lipstick smudges?

Inhale, inhale, inhale

I need to get out,

I need to breathe,

I'm coughing up ash-stained memories that

Shake me,

Rip me,

Aching lungs sucking in unfamiliar air

Fingertips trembling as I light another match.

"Can't we just talk about it, baby?

Can't we figure this one out?"

You hand me another mask

And I breathe it in,

Inhale, exhale.

I watch the smoke reflected in your eyes.

Don't be so disappointed.

You tried even less than I did.

~effervescent laughter