Verse: Begin

born and bare
everyday

and gasping
for air

awareness
takes hold

slowly
details reveal

the senses
fill themselves in

and you
become you

even before
your eyes open

mine
find you

to leave
a kiss

to keep you
safe and warm

when i
rise.

Verse: twilight

somewhere
i walk

where my feet
do not know

the ground
abounds in endings

ever rising
to greet me

without fail
they whisper

rest but i
prevail

it is not
so dark yet

that i cannot
see you.

Verse: Birthday poem for m'lady

in this love
i want nothing

more unfolding
when and wow

the fluttering
of my heart

will not begin
to tell

you are in me
like love is

these lungs
ever expanding

to embrace
and hold

the air
you breathe

and to not
let go.

Verse: somehow your hands

(Tomorrow is m'lady's birthday. If you follow her on Twitter, wish her happy birthday then. I wrote this as a gift for her, in a car, this morning, on my BlackBerry. I made some editorial changes and additions, but it is 95% the same as the fevered note I made.)

somehow your hands
have seen me
before this

and loosed
into the air
i soar

in impossible wonder
and words wanting
to know

the how
of here and now
which is unfolding

urgently
in a shorthand
of finger strokes

my soul
a canvas of
slight and seeming

feathered phrases
i won't recall
but for the mysteries

that you
have mined and met
in me

Verse: Hiroshima

as i
gaze upon
the chalk outlines

a grim, hollow reminder
of a brief moment
so long ago

i wonder
what is
there to offer

to comfort
those who are
the departed

water
to quench their thirst
for life

a silence
that complements
their own

a voice
too conflicted
to take a side

or this
a hope
for never again
again and again

Verse: predators

walking by
the sinister knots
the barbed wire
that snakes around
the abandoned school
where my mother went
the windows
that remain
look like black eyes
at least the ones
that are not broken
or boarded up anyway
i chance to see them
brown as oak
and huddled
conspiratorially
in the long grass
singed by the sun
moving careful
and slow together
so as not
to raise suspicion
so as not
to let their prey know
that they are approaching

Verse: sidekick

(for @niclone)

winter
has a way
of sneaking up
on you

after
a while
it gets into
your bones

and
that is
the instant when
you know

that
you should
find someone you
can love

someone
brave enough
to give love
to you

yet
heroes are
so very hard
to find

so
if I
am not asking
too much

perhaps
you would
agree to be
my sidekick

and
we will
live a secret
nocturnal life

together
prowling restlessly
for the promise
of adventure

while
the streets
that do not
know us
sleep.

verse: target

when i knew
what my voice
was for
it was already
too late
it had cracked

when i knew
what love
was for
it was already
too late
i had betrayed it

when i knew
what fingerprints
were for
it was already
too late
i was imprinted

when i knew
who you
were for
it was already
too late
i was a target

Verse: Room

i want a room
where everything leaves
by way of night
except us

a room
to wait out
strange seasons
the sun in its phases

a room
of farewells
and returns
as is our custom

a room
to store
all the desire
we cannot see

a room
that is boundless
inscrutable
and ours.

Verse: unmasked

(@imreddy4u suggested a poem about masks. This is what I came up with...)

when you
are as naked
as the rain

and laid out
sumptuous
as a feast

then i
will remove
my mask

and lose
the longing
in my heart

within
the deep ridges
of your fingerprints.