Blue Persuasion

My head.

Overflowing with past-due bores,

bosses and second-hand smoke.

I’m lured west like something

I just can’t quite grasp.

The horizon─ some kind of blues,

some kind of drug,

magic I have to know. . .

The highway pulls me

deeper into its mellow.

A deserted barn reminds me

of my grandfather, solid

but slightly leaning

over to one side.

The sky gushes blue.

Its calm, so persuasive.

Tired of being a servant to myself,

I let the worst part of me yield to the rainbow.

Fleur De Cafe

She’s got cosmic vertigo.

Lipstick fever, pink fatale.

Mornings with her vanity, afternoons

at the Fleur De Café.

Lethal legs drip down into

midnight heels. Her lips,

magnolia pulling you in, in, into

her cult of red hair.

Skin, cream against lace.

Lips, icy champagne.

Up all night.

When I was a boy,

I dreamt of this woman.

But I didn’t know she’d

make me

feel so empty.

Love Me Now

Still waiting for you to accept

that I’m leaving. The days are

running thin. The dates swell,

tiptoeing closer and closer. Gone.

Soon I’ll be a picture, a distant song.

Sadness ferments in your eyes.

Irises─ pools of black upon wet blue.

So please, love me now.

The room. Uneasy.

A salsa act brings it

down

in the kitchen.

They will

tango

loud and red, until you

come with me, we’ll cry together.

Your family that binds us will reach across

a continent to love their Lane. Hungry,

funny, lovely, stretchy Laney.

We’ve stumbled amongst the jagged rocks

that have cracked our egos. We’ve felt

our insides grow, twist, ache, lean against the walls

we’ve built to keep us a part. Oh, the tangle of denial.

But all I see in you is me, so love me now.