Growtastic

8/15/2019 Growtastic

1/12


2/12

Index

One — Norma Jean

Two — Fake Flowers

Three — Moths

Four — Empire Hands

Five — Quintet

Six — Yr Told Year

Seven — Growtastic (Prominent Ocean)

Eight — Attaching photographs to paper to set on fire

Nine — Charcoal

Ten — But Butte


3/12

Norma Jean

I’m looking for some kind of romance

I want to break the surface

use your ribs as guideshoping my pale ghost doesn’t fall throughmiss your call

your skin’s ripening

I traced the lines when you were sleepingtripped in your hair and when I left

light from the message you sent tried to call me back

I couldn’t be back

You’re settling for me againnew ball gowns sift by

traces were left of the hairs in between the stiches on my sleevesfrom when you wouldn’t leave

from when the charcoal couldn’t trace the outline of our room

Somewhere the pads of my fingers don’t slide awaywhere you don’t shake


4/12

Fake Flowersi

They fell over my handsnapped at the stem

I’m not with frailty well

the reds, blues, yellows all grew at each stepthe concrete bloominga sun-stroked hand pulling the lever toward itself

ii

We existed in the same framefor a night at least, curled inside the glow

you smiled at the colors, spoke on them but it will never be so simple

“It’s good they never die”I could never catch your tone

restlessness set into my leg with a calming effortyou spliced it around the idea

It was a false dream convincing me it happened


5/12

Moths

I framed your bodyspider cracks formed in between the glass and wood

my hands reddened as the final pieces came together

a light bulb held suspended where your heart satso thick with moths floatingeach one trying to escape

wings brushing the cracksnot changing anything

You haven’t moved in a year

each night the light flicks ona pop I swear I heard

drawing them closercovering the surface completely

until the backs of the wings brightenedtracing the outlined patterns like flashlighted hands on empty walls

I swear I saw your face

I wished I could wrap strings around your fingertipsrest them on the ends

the gentlest pull then them fallingIt would release the edges

they would fly out, dropping yousnapping the tungsten

You no longer standing

or the spider cracks that remained of your figurethem moving away, patterns mixing with the stars

just close enough to grasp hands bending heavy fingers until they grow together


6/12

Empire Hands

I felt a forgettable ghost warmthkept high and returned to me in bowtie and done mascara

we were sleeping to drink and drinking to sleep

the worsening dried in-between parked car rivalriesand beating the steering wheel to return the lust

Cordiality made it worth itand while you were sunsetting,

I was bottoming out beneath my own hand mountains breaking under the pressure of steam from the mouth of your exhales

you fogged up the mirror between breaths between knees

Then like a slow dance you slipped back to me

and I couldn’t be themand instead we didn’t

I stayed in your hair


7/12

Quintet

Back behind me the lake is burningand I thought I lost you in the fog

a bullet through the blue from the heat in my chest

How many miles away can smoke signals carry the distance between usthe distance between us is settled

it’s been weeks since I calmed under the break of a coast

I always wanted to watch you break between ribswatch the words crawl out

not clutched in embrace

Myself kept calm within cold morningswaiting to feel the rush of willowed velvet touch

never hearing the echo from orange sun rising, steaming

Birds singalone on the branches

buoyant at the bending and creaking


8/12

Yr Told Year

Build houses with meexcite the whistling wind through your hair

be defined by what you brought

the heavy smile rests

Etch your name in the back of my hand

the heat precedes youI’ll have something to look at through worn veins

it’s at least an end

I’ll lie in the grass with our breaths togetheryou’ll look into the brightness

anything in the daytime doesn’t surviveeyes fix on the specks surrounded in color

You curved around the star patterns and fell back down

I stayed in the soft edges


9/12

Growtastic (Prominent Ocean)

No I’m not

I’m fixated on the brightness

the hummingbird tattoo spoke in redscolors mixed telling of thrills

You won’t see me

Waters run deep between usthe wake is harsh, white,

capped at the top and pulling back into itself

How many more have seen you

Poked into your skincolors create new veins, pulsing,

etching images out and turning them dry


10/12

Attaching photographs to paper to set on fire

You showed me a crooked smilerooted in him holding sinewy shaking muscles

walking away, your black winter coat,

red hair washed over, strands sittingyou offsetting each other

Straining at the grip left imprints on palmsnails imbedded

creaking and popping bones between breathssharp inhales, rocking, shaking,

exhales calming before the tension launders


11/12

Charcoal

There were leftover marks blended in with the paleness

not outlining anything

in hopes to throw it away they meant nothinglines and lines and lines to create a patternit felt right

it didn’t make it better

Thoughts of growth wanedgrowth felt right and away

The marks were forgettable

fingerprints meant nothingand the black washed away


12/12

But Butte

Hairline cracks started on a granite endsplintering, pushing up dust

breaking, falling, rolling,

slipping down the slope bending dry grass

Tufts of brush stir

animals racesteps scatter

dirt whisks

Soft hills hiss in the sunclean wash rushes from hidden streams

a whistle in the grassa bird cries dully

Messy lavender protrudes the air

wind carries fire across hillsnew algae blooms

cotton shirts wick water

Valleys’ form and shapeshutters between the gelatin frames

flickers from the light behindunattainable to grow on stock

Growtastic

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