The crash

Comes when you’re surfing a wave.

You taste the salt air and

Grip with your toes,

Forgetting that all waves must fall.

You wish progress flowed like time,

And that late July

Is what life always tastes like:

Summer’s eternal crest

No sea could swallow....

I’m infinitely curious but equally breakable

Too soft to bury a truth unmistakable

So I search for the truth but then swaddle a lie

Why stare into hell when you could hide in the sky?

My faith is a phone I dropped down the gutter

When clarity honks my exhaust pipes sputter

Burrowed as deep in the sand as the buildings are tall

Since seeing everything demands feeling nothing at all

So I ple...

To the girl in the velvet dress:

When you were born

You signed an unspoken contract

To agree to the silence

To not ask questions

To not challenge the status quo

The evidence is written

In stiff photo album poses and diamond smiles

In grand halls with high ceilings and tiny forks

In rides on friends’ boats

In itchy velvet kids clothes on Christmas morning

In safety handed out like ratio...

Growing up was constantly

Swimming

With no gills

In a pool of ice water

Always moving

Pursuing

The label of

Your perfect daughter

You love me, you applaud me

You know that I’m smart

But what happens when

Miss perfect

Stops playing her part?

Will you still adore me

If about me

You can no longer brag?

If I start speaking my mind?

Waving a more colorful flag?

If I center my values

Instead of padding ...

If I’m bi why can’t I just marry a man? 
I don’t just exist in the spaces in-between 
I make the in-between take up space.
My first crushes were an elf with a bow and young Leo. 
I was so sure of my feelings and also not sure at all. 
After all, I was a uniform school girl who loved RENT.
I wanted a boy because I wanted a boy to want me.
Other girls made me nervous, especially the pretty ones. 
The...

I thought I got rid of him

I thought I cleared the air

Of his toxic chemical breath

And his scary witch hair

My scars from where he ate me

Had been healing recently

Until today he swam up out of nowhere

To bite off another piece of me

The cuddle fish say “he’s crazy!”

Even the eels say “it’s not your fault!”

But his attacks drew so much blood

That I’m perfect prey for more assault

P...

Dear diary,

I love him but

When I’m in bed with him,

I can only see,

When I close my eyes.

And when I do

I don’t feel his lips on mine.

I imagine hers.

Soft and beautiful

The curves on her body

Sharp and sweet like citrus,

A glass prism hitting the light

Just right.

I want her.

This faceless femme

In the way the horizon wants the sun.

Every night.

What is wrong with me?

He’s so kind,...

I hung my heart out to dry

On a clothesline

And it rained every single day

Bouncing

up down

and

Blowing

in the wind

Drenched

in

these

tears

Touching

this

skin

...

Oh what peace this day should bring

In a solar orbit’s sling

Because sound doesn’t know yet how to yell

In the cosmic great nothing

But when it’s quiet enough to hear my thoughts

The inner supernovas spark

The BOOM of chaotic swirling stars

Cloud the relief of the quiet dark

Jupiter’s stormy eye entraps me

Swirling unable to unwind

Why does the mass of a trillion galaxies

Have weaker pull than m...

I can’t help but love

And look for things to love in the souls of others.

Love is the entire sky.

But to find another woman to love, I can’t just go to any bar

And wait to get hit on.

I have to sense the queer parts in the crevices of others,

And hope they’ll unlock them for me.

As a result, I’ve seen some shooting stars.

I excite them for a while.

But in the end,

I am always flowers wi...