boundaries

His default is yes.

Her default was yes. It changed.

Self-preservation.

Sinatra

Old blue eyes croon/swoon
Luck be a lady tonight:
Be mine, forever.

hCG

A friend of mine found out that she was pregnant and described that first trimester as carrying around "a life-sized secret."

two pink lines equals
all of the emotions, plus
a life-sized secret.

waldorf

Sunday morning comes:
luxurious hotel room,
art and brunch await.

topography

Louisiana
constantly surprises me.
Sugarcane. Levees.

greens

Bacon grease splatters
unnoticed across bare skin:
Trial by fire.

(last line is 5 syllables in the South)

11/12/13, New Orleans

Turned on the furnace
Smelled last summer burn into
His house, our bodies.

steam

Sipping hot green tea,
I wish I knew how she is.
Cool breeze comes. Inhale.

September

Threat of street flooding
New Orleans Saturday morn
Hauntingly quiet

ex

I drive by her house
when I need a reminder:
she is alone. too.

prejudice

There's enough ugly
in the world. I do not need
to be friends with it.

2005

The History of Love is one of my favorite books. The author wrote it concurrently to her husband writing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and if you read them back-to-back, your life will change.

I mean, your life will change by reading either, but the both of them together--in either order--will haunt you.

You're welcome in advance.

*

This boy I like asked me last month if he could take me somewhere all I needed was a passport and bikini bottoms. I accepted. Next week, we travel to St. Martin.

Tonight, he announced that his beach read is The History of Love. We've never discussed it. He explained to me, not knowing anything about my history with it (one of the only books I have read thrice): "Yeah, so. I read the reviews, and everyone said that it was this beautifully haunting and intricately woven story with complicated timelines..."

I said, "I know."

He said, "Wait. Have you read it?"

According to interviews, Jonathan Safron Foer and Nicole Krauss were not familiar with the parallels in their stories or storytellings. I don't really care if that's true. They both wrote masterful, honest depictions of super difficult topics.

*

History of love:
spaces delineated,
misunderstood, blurred.

*

"Once upon a time, there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend  his whole life answering." --Nicole Krauss

May we all be so blessed.

June 21, 2013

The summer solstice,
an almost full moon? Let's sweat,
be humid, mate, love.

humidity

Clouds full of moisture
Linger upon the grey lake:
Everything's swollen.

casual

packing for five days:
stretchy pants, warm sweaters, socks
(Carolina spring)

bishop

The art of losing
isn't hard to master. Just
practice, live, exhale.

crumbling

Compartmentalized
everything. Gave her fault
lines. Upon quicksand.

removal

Garbage trucks roll through
Wish they could take away his
Toxins, questions, hurt.

counting

Hospitals. Winter.
The way the light attaches:
a long December.

six-worded haiku

So many secrets
Cue vulnerability,
Manipulation.