almostabillionseconds

[almostabillionseconds]

Meddled with metal

To prove your mettle and met

All with medal dead

[almostabillionseconds]

blank lines do not say nothing

Anne Carson, The Glass Essay

[almostabillionseconds]

Be

(A Short, Short Story)

He said, "I am who I am."

I said, "I am too."

We smiled.

[almostabillionseconds]

Eye, the tornado's core,

having such narrow clarity

won't claim

destruction

or realize

power

I, a force of nature,

extending beyond

known limits

destroy reality

to see

you

claim

power

[almostabillionseconds]

Dear Sisters, Stay Strong

all bodies bleed, none

Live immune to the pull

from Moon. period.

❤

[almostabillionseconds]

[almostabillionseconds]

This is...

father

a father

the Father

your father

what a father could be

what a father should be

mother

a mother

the Mother

your mother

what a mother could be

what a mother should be

family

a family

the Family

your family

what a family could be

what a family should be

perspective

a perspective

your perspective

my perspective

what our perspectives should be

what our perspectives could be

This is rhetoric.

[almostabillionseconds]

Unrequite

I ask my sister if it ever feels like she's trying to get water from an empty well.

She says no

Squeeze water from a stone?

No.

Melt ice in the Arctic?

No.

Waiting for rain in a drought?

"All your metaphors are impossible," she says.

"No, rain in a drought isn't impossible. The atmosphere just isn't right."

She tells me his actions show that he cares even if he doesn't want to--isn't able to admit it.

She'll bring them up to him

like proof,

like pointing out clouds in the sky.

"'That's not a cloud,'" she says he'd say.

"'It doesn't mean rain.'"

"The meteorologist predicted rain," she'd say.

"'That still doesn't mean it's rain.'"

Instead of seeing me, she's focused on her impossible sky.

And now water fills my desert eyes--I finally understand.

I too have been desperate for rain.

[almostabillionseconds]

Muffled gasps idle

in my car; sunshine chokes on

unseen exhaustion.

[almostabillionseconds]

Get up

Have you ever wanted

to succeed

so badly

that you didn't rise

from bed

for fear

of failure

?

[almostabillionseconds]

One Short Day

My laced-up soles of rubber beat along

the concrete veins of New York's pulsing streets.

Surging with wanderlust, I stand among

storied towers and wonder at the feat.

Perfected plans fracture in that moment

and jolt awake my soul to find inside

a fragment piece unmapped adventures meant

for wanderers with gaping eyes held wide.

I stumble to new heights: Van Gogh's Ear pops,

mute candle choirs breath beneath stained-glass skies,

caricatures are drawn by vibrant shops.

My heart beats still as this sultry day dies.

Life's peaks, in thrumming cadence but apart,

are proof to me that the soul entwines the heart.

[almostabillionseconds]

Losing Popo

He told the same stories

Now he asks the same questions

"Where are my keys?

I've lost my keys."

You dangle a ring of opening doors

"These are your keys."

"Oh, yes," he agrees,

"But where are my keys?"

[almostabillionseconds]

Shower

home's fiberglass

womb respites soul's wounds from

muddied body and muddled mind

renews

[almostabillionseconds]

There once was a silly old ape

who liked to eat old, rotten grapes.

One night he got drunk

and fought with a monk-

we tried to repair him with tape.

[almostabillionseconds]

Bus Stop beneath the Maple

Winged leaf whirls around,

Child's wonder twirling down

lands by fallen pecan nut,

seed with seed, so I pick them up

to break sweet fruit from her jagged shell

and to trace green veins with my dirty nail.