Candy Hearts

You make me a little girl again
A princess dancing in her
Purple floral dress
With my hair in pretty curls,
My hands in dainty white gloves
You give me candy hearts
They speak of love

NaPoWriMo #4

peaches

"pa's peach", my grandfather's voice
a deep bass that always sounded
playful and funny,
I'd imagine the peach tree in our yard
with sweet orange sap, and hundreds
of big, ripe fruits
their bright, sweet flavor like 
the warm hug of summer,
then one year during the rains of May
I bought a book by Yangsook Choi
about peach heaven,
and my boss bought me those, the

peaches that are pink and white
they were crunchy and not very sweet
and I cried,

yesterday your father said 
last summer, you were in peach heaven
and one of the trees had so much fruit
it split clean down the middle 

I imagined jars and jars of peaches, 

orange and soft, suspended in syrup
as if frozen in time, 

sweeter than honey. 

NaPoWriMo #3

You Hurt Me

"You're just obsessive", 

You spat it out like a second hand curse,

How come I'm not worthy of 

Your worn out trust, like her converse 

Filled with holes, the glue coming undone 

You think I haven't worked for love,

But I'm the one holding onto us 

Grasping in the dark to tell you everything 

Watching your eyes go soft, then angry 

Because when you touched me 

I was reduced to weakness 

A puddle of blood on the floor,

Knife in my side, your hand inches away 

Shifting into a higher gear, plunging 

Deeper into my fear, twisting the blade around 

Until I can't breathe; what did you want from me? 

NaPoWriMo #2, 2023

Musing on Forbidden Things

the soft kiss of 

your clothing to my cheek 

smell of burning sugar 

like this sweetness, ablaze 

we are flames, and you are 

infatuated with firelight

tell me one morning 

my breakfast coffee won't be 

filled with reflections 

of my dreams, your face 

dancing on the dark surface,

eyes of morning light 

the cool sky of an early sunrise 

the kaleidoscope of the night 

turning to day. 

NaPoWriMo #1, 2023