PIANO KEYS UNDERNEATH A RUINED MANICURE
remember those days when your nail
turned black after a smash
fell off exposing crusty dead skin
remember when you could swing off a roof
hold your breath so long you passed out
played keyboards
in an all-girl garage band
HORSE GUY
There was this guy from the mountains
he barely showered had a beard
didn’t wash his clothes—rugged like his boots
He rode to my cabin on a horse
The appealing factor was
he stared at me from the end of the bar
with half a smile and a secret
The first night he smelled like pine sap
he lived in the woods
second night I wondered if it was urine
third night he was gone
rode his horse somewhere new
or I had moved on to the artist from town
Horse guy left an impression
scuff marks on the foot of my bedsheets
something rough in the air
{Horse Guy published in Journal of Undiscovered Poets: Issue # 2, January 2021} https://www.undiscoveredpoets.com/
QUARANTINE { written at the beginning of the CoVid quarantine in April 2020 when I barely left my house}
Coffee grind dark roast toast melted butter melted brain
this is a day without capital letters there are masked people crawling
by in the rain I want to be outside in the rain crawling by watching myself
crawl by in the rain six feet away from myself crawling like the delivery
man Oliver he’s Oliver we texted in his store about substitutions
substitute everything with dark roast so I can crawl by myself in
the rain and watch you crawl by in the rain six feet away