smile

gold hues

wispy clouds

we’re chucking donuts

(our favorite kinds)

off the jones’ memorial

when I’m with you

I feel like a kid again

living deep
without thinking about

time

work

sometimes you're high
at work
but hey, you're still chopping
onions
just fine
sometimes i wonder what you think
of me
so quiet
sometimes i think back to
my unrestrained chatter
so nervous and unaware
of the broken world
that first summer
working
i'll gladly do dishes
if i get a smile

we know

flash of a smile fragment for you and me and
for, according to you, whenever you’re “around”
forcibly reserved for Christmas and special occasions
basically we have to eat some sort of bird
or maybe a pig

I’m okay with miles and trees and houses and lives between us
just as long as we can pick up from where we left
each other like time between isn’t real
while we secretly bask in each other's smiles
as insecurities are undone without a word

Messages

Just dropping off
a message that I’m
still nearby
in the form of the Time

article about cattle
being pumped with steroids and stuff

wasn’t aware
until I hit the familiarity
of the dark halls and awkward
teenage faces
how raw this is

and you caught the tear
dang-it .

and gave me a lesson
about talents being buried
and reminded me who the bad guy was

“What does God want you here for?”

walked past the math rooms
unstable emotions ruling
my feet.

thought I had a plan. where
to go from here?

(I went to the café
and wrote this crappy poem
and also peeked over my laptop
at the worker who smiled while he
made me my tea.)