Love in the Time of 'Rona (poems) - book one

absentminded

love splits me into a million

pieces of longing

The sun’s a bit lost in your hair

right now

you’re humming absentmindedly and

your face could start/end wars

treasure and bottle this moment

of absolute normalcy

of absolute serenity

your hair-flip is for me

you are beloved

the sun hasn’t left your hair and it doesn’t want to

ecosystem

absentminded, I let another

bowl of leftovers turn into an ecosystem

I left the burner on

the toothpaste cap off

garbage full

toilet paper depleted

floor unswept

stubble too stubbly

hair too pretentious

neighborhood too loud

cat altogether too present and catlike

allergen storm greeting you at the door

absentminded , I forgot to learn

words like tiramisu and soufflé and samosa and forgot to turn off

the whirring machinery of my mind

even though I left all the lights on

you love me in the dead of night

and when I wake full of life

Hoping

Ecosystem comprised of

leafless island

loveless multitudes

sunless pulchritude

you and I

kissing each other in the winter midnight

holding each other tight

hoping we’ll be all right

at this height

in those floating box of manufactured sky

we’re inside

and there’s nothing of the world of flashing light

and there’s nothing of the pearls

twinkling bright

no fur, no stretched smiles, thinly

veiled hunger

just you and I

in the winter midnight

Devilish

hoping

because that’s all that I have

because there’s no other antidote

for fear

that comes creeping in, wrapping

twisty black fingers around my heart

and squeezing squeezing squeezing

with a devilish grin, until every last drop comes out

hoping here’s hoping here’s knowing

this moment is a drop in the ocean

and a slow-dance in a burning world

and there’s no man that knows he knows that he’s no man that he

knows