Highlighted Poetry
2026
Crumbs
My skin yearns for the breeze
As the sun, which envelops me in its heat
Pleasant for a few moments
Now brings discomfort and suffering
Not unlike your attention
Which when is placed elsewhere
I fumble for
But once I ensnare you
In my closing fist
The pleasure burns to tension
And I want you gone
Just as fast as my grasp
I release you
Shake you off like crumbs on a shirt
Audience
The audience eye never stills
The cornea never dries
Unyielding iris does not blink
Omniscient overseer in disguise
Comprised of a void visage
There are no shadows in which to hide
Black paint abyss of the floor is impenetrable
Upstage face is imperceivable
The awareness of presence is too much to bear
I flip the switch of that stage light stare
By tipping my chin, drawing closed my curtain of hair
Hiss
From the shadow of rock I lay waiting
The volcanic heat of desert stones
Martian dust blows in ceaseless wind, irritating
My still scales that stalk your steps and wrap my bones
With narrow eyes and flicked tongue, I blink once
And in that passing now, the Fates appear
I hiss and twist my rattle as you near
My stare of intrigue becomes fear
You find me in my hiding place by
Orbit of the dark side of my moon
Yank me up with your firm grip
Stuff me in a bag
Tie me in a knot
Predator becomes prey
Sunlight is forgot
Botanical Gardens
Skittering gnats swarm over still water
I inhale the putrid staleness
Can I try to shoot the reflecting silk of the spider’s web
While it hides under the footbridge
Then peeks out, looking for tasty onlookers
Who must cross in curiosity
Not unlike your average troll
The geckos race and fight
The koi brushes up against a brother
And leaps, breaking through the surface
The thicket of bamboo stalks rustle vigorously
Moments of belligerence within the architected
Peace of the botanical gardens
Morning Glory
Morning Glory
Needs more sun
Sprawls out its petals
Like stretching in bed
Blooms into a violet discus
Illuminating the landscape
On its verdant green pillow
Tendrils of stems wound like hair
Around the garden fence
Overcome what is naturally there
Invasive, pervasive, seeping into all the earth’s crevices
Rays of light leaving no shadow unfilled
Morning glory
Stagnant Blood
I wake with stagnant blood
A humor not so humorous
Blood that is supposed to waft
Like smoke from a sitting cigarette
Rush and rinse through my veins
Heat my exhausted limbs with vigor
Instead I am stunned by Medusa’s stare
I resist succumbing to the stillness
The apathetic petrifaction of my body
I reach for the sky
A divine and perfect blue today
With cumulus clouds forming knuckles and kneecaps
I ask for the sun to thaw me
And hang myself out on the line to dry
Compendium
If you made a compendium of my memories Could you learn the real me? Of course not! Even I don’t remember my memories right It would be a character study then A based on a true story story A mirage of a mask of a featureless face A phantasmagoric motley of scenes An avant garde movie To little critical acclaim, but plenty online hate
Final Frontier
Ramble
The sky is unzipping through a series of chemtrails I’m waiting for a hand to reach through An apotheosis of flight and spacetime Frenetic visions of capitalist gains Planets to plunder Money to make Take hold of the void and market it! Grasp the constellations and sell! You want to come up here, don’t you? I’m waiting for a hand to reach through Starry knuckles with nails of necrosis Choke the breath of exploration Strangle the smoke of innovation Squeeze the jugular of the escapist captains The final frontier is right here
Footsteps gone awry in verdant grasses Women with lurid visions Ramble, dance, and slur words Like bees drunk on poisoned pollen They spin in a dizzy rhythm of tempests Exploding nebulae in a sempiternal blaze Pounding the back of Mother Earth With solar souls and youth’s delight