Omnibus

Long train running down the tracks. The girl gets fire in her eyes. She watches it approach, evaluates its speed. The engine passes her and she breaks into a run. Her skinny legs race over the thick wild grass, her long hair flies behind her. The next car has an opening, and she's going to take it. One, two, three, JUMP! And she's on board. Breathing hard, she looks out over the land and wonders where she'll end up. Wherever it is, she knows it won't be nearly as exhilarating as the journey.

Dawn

How you make me sing. To think of the sun rising over our bed, our skin, our kiss. To remember the warmth of your breath on my neck. To long for the feel of your legs tangled with mine. Once more. Twice more. Every day for as long as we both can take it. That's what I want to wake up to.

Cascade

Emotion comes cascading out, over the cliff, crashing below as you watch it all go. It's in my nature. I am a mountain. You are the wind. What does it say that I've done my best to follow you? Picked up all my weight, all my burdens, and ran, trailed you here, as far as I can. Now you've turned and we stand face to face. Nervously my feelings fall out of place, spilling over the ledge and down at your feet. You pick yourself up so as not to trample them. I tell you not to bother. The truth is, I don't want you to tiptoe around me. I just want you to immerse.

Hie

I fly, hie, high from this place, lie to your face, die in your grace. Can't stop to cry, gotta keep up the pace. Pretending not to be shy, wearing red silk and lace. Don't wanna be too dry to try, yearn to make your pulse race. Changing our minds is part of the chase, not a misplaced disgrace, so don't buy the sky, I don't need a reason why, I just love you. That's safe enough for me.

Renascent

When everyone else has fallen, she will rise again. This is how she moves, how she lives. She finds her strength when others are weak, so that she may breathe quietly when they roar and rumble. She doesn't long for the limelight, she doesn't hope for gratitude. She only wishes to be at peace with the world around her. The rest do and be what they may, she needs only one thing. She can hold it, she can reach for it. She doesn't have to have it, as long as it exists. That's just who she is.

petrify

trapped in this golden goo, solid as a rock, but living no more. i don't want to be those people, those fossils, those failures. i think about eternal sunshine, ephemeral moonlight, and everything in between, and i know we can do it. we care too much not to. i don't know why i get so afraid. "if you love it, let it go." i'll let you go, then, and i trust that you will come back to me when you're ready. just like i trusted you to see all of me, and to keep my secrets to yourself.

moquette

the scene. the soft thick carpet underneath my skin. i look left and i see the ground. i look up and i see you. i hear you. i feel you. i know you. i know only you. i can't think. we're in the clouds. we're in a pool. we're on the beach. we're exactly where the tide meets the shore. i don't know how to say this anymore. i'm in heaven, but are you here with me? i don't want to be alone.

bounty

endless. my feelings like an ocean. so much to offer, yet so much turmoil. can't seem to settle no matter how much i try. can't just be, because the wind and the pressure set upon me, stir me up. what if i surrender? what if i just give in? i don't know which way this will take me, but i hope it's closer to you.

zest

something stings me, and i look to see. tears burn in my eyes, because it's me. i set off the chain of events, i dripped into the pond, and now the ripples are carrying me farther and farther out, further and further away. i don't know how to fix it. i don't know what to do. i'm lost in a past i thought was forgiven. i'm afraid of a future without... i dare not say.

open-hearth

forged in fire. put a piece of metal through an oven and it comes out stronger. is that what we all are? people. we think of ourselves as so fragile sometimes, so easily bent and broken and twisted and darkened. but the truth, i think, is that we are made of steel. we can withstand so much. we take ourselves for granted, and yet we don't give ourselves enough credit. i can take this, and so can you. and we'll be better for it in the end. that is what i believe.

kismet

this to me is one of the most beautiful words in all the english language. maybe it's not even english, originally. but listen to it. think about it. feel it in your heart and in your soul. it rolls off the tongue and into the ear. it sings of destiny, and yet there's something so real, so solid about it. like you can touch it. you can direct it. you can hold it in your hand; it's yours. yours, and maybe mine too.

Pamper

She sits on her throne without knowing why she's there. What has she done to deserve such riches? How was she chosen for this exalted position? She has never been treated so royally. Like a treasure, like a goddess. Eyes wide, bewildered, enchanted. Overwhelmed. She starts to cry, but it's a good thing. Her tears drip with supreme joy. She never wants to leave, and really, who would? Eyes wet, she raises her face to the sky and whispers, with all her heart, Thank you. Thank you for all these things I'm not sure I deserve. Thank you so much.

Papillote

Smoke rising. Sugar melted sticky sweet on my tongue. On your lips. On our hips. This is where the crevices meet, the air whooshes out, the eyes close and then open wide. This is where I know I'm safe. Light or dark, I can't even comprehend. Awareness fleeting, fleeing, out the door. Outside world can't enter here. Only you. Now, tonight, this moment, it's only you.

Girder

Cities with water running through them always get me. The bridges, the boats, the banks, the breeze. The way the land splits without taking sides. The way the beautiful scenes slip in and out of view. The way I can trace the clouds in my mind, like the topography of your face, the skin spread out over bones, so fine, so strong. My fingers know no other sense. My heart knows no other beat. I live in you already. I'm lost in you, and happy that way.

Shampoo

I sang her song -- I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair -- but it didn't really work. And thank God for that. Look at where we stand now. Under the stars, under the covers, under the same stream of water, stealing soap from each other's bodies. These are the things they've done but cannot understand. These are the things she forgot to remember, because she's afraid of losing. Losing me, losing control, losing herself. But that's okay. Because I won't forget. I'll keep it for us both.

Florilegium

How do I explain my desire, my dreams, my ambition, and still justify my lack of tangible action? I set the stage but I have yet to write the play. I have the patrons, but nothing to show. The theater will only stay open for so long. It's time to break my leg.

Obovate

We are trying to be faithful to ourselves, to the versions of our persons that we see. I've carried my heart's wishes to the extreme of abandon. She's following me to the ledge. I'm that sticky sweet drop of dew, clinging to the stem. She's the tear that's falling down, but maybe she'll land in the sea.

Couchant

This is almost too easy. (Look it up.) Do you remember how proud you were when I asked if it was something you'd want to try? A simple idea, an extension of present games, not so cooly sweet as the trick you pulled out of the freezer, but an unaided sort of magic, anyway. Hopefully we'll both enjoy it. That's the object of our play.

Herky-jerky

The tremor starts at the center and works its way out. Down to tingle the toes. Up to fry the brain. It's an explosion. It's a chaos contained, harnessed, held into a single point of contact, all heat and humidity, all pleasure and pressure and play. It's fleeting, fleshy, freshly discovered appetite. It's intriguing, arousing, mouthing all over the skin. It's the race, the racing beat, the beating drums that sound as one. It's the best dance I've ever known. It's the only one I couldn't live without.

Sumpter

You drive me. You make me want to be a better person. You inspire me to succeed. All these things exist within me already, but you spark an intensity, a fireball branding force that takes me over day after day, night after night. I can feel my pulse stampeding through my veins as you ignite me past every limit I think I have. I feed off my own passion, but I live inside your faith in me.

Apartment

Maybe I'm more afraid now than ever. Like a fruit cut open, my core is exposed. What if you don't like the taste? There is so much darkness in this world, and you are my lantern. The flame has flickered once or twice before, but I've stood my ground, kept whole by faith, and waited for the storm to pass. If you went out for good, I... I don't know what I'd do. I prefer not to think of such pitch black.

Nauseous

Cure for the quake in the quivering folds of an internal hold, bickering tricks morph as sickening truths come to light, shine in the lackluster blockbuster life of a child, child among children, not innocent but young. This is where we play, lay, stay, stray, pray, may. This is the origin. I am ready to leave.

Eidetic

Your words are like your tongue: they send me reeling back into the breathless, tangled, sweaty nights that stay with me like candy-coated fog. I breathe you in when I'm not thinking clearly, nearly choke on the scent of your skin. Stretching upward, outward, I beg of you; stretching outward, inward, you supply. This give-and-take sustains my blood, heats it to a bubbling boil; only you can make me spill.

Clandestine

Two clandestine histories. One unearthed. The disparate ends wave in the wind like tails of a ribbon, searching for release. The clipped wing bird crashes as she attempts to fly, but her sister's flight makes her believe. Every star in the night twinkles in her teary eye; the cool moon will not listen to her pleas. But she can regain her strength, and some day she will soar, for that is what birds are meant to do.

Efficacious

Truth is what we make it, and for all my suspicious shades of green, I can only hear what she says and only know what she does. Anything else is make-believe, and my imagination is everything but fair. The most effective metamorphosis is the one I don't need to fake. So I'll take it all at face value and hope to be amazed.

Experiment

Is this just some sick experiment you've set up for yourself? You know I don't believe it when you go, but sometimes even my faith can be stirred. I want to be here, want to be her, and I think you want that too. Maybe we both get tired sometimes. Maybe I'll just slip underneath these waves for a while. Let me know when it's safe to resurface. Then you can taste the salt of the sea on my lips, and we'll forget these currents currents ever pulled at us.

Aerenchyma

Porous, my imagination likes to take the spaces between and fill them all with you. Propellers defy gravity like the pull of their misperceptions, and our discretion leaves me vulnerable to the smiles of a happy ghost. The wind whispers in my ear that the future's getting near, but I hush her up and close my eyes and continue on my way.

Jetsam

Spiraling into shame of the past, but it all seems so trivial now. Can you taste the excitement on my tongue as I slip it into your mouth? We smile at our explicit secrets, even knowing that everyone's got some of their own. What we keep in our basements doesn't need to be so dark. I prefer to jettison those skeletons into the fog.

Flotsam

I used to think of myself as what remained at the end of the day, the stuff boys collected to occupy their time until the next Christmas or birthday. No one told me that in so many words, but my bruises and the non-looks in their ees spoke loudly enough. Now, though, I am mostly healed, and you, your gaze penetrates me, and I lie here, open to you, no longer the discarded junk, but the brand new toy.

Stadium

She stands alone in the middle of the field. Every seat in the house is empty, but one. All lights are on her, and though they are bright, she smiles. She cannot see him, but she knows he is there. He has orchestrated this dream-come-true night; he has made her the star. Nervously, she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, waiting for him to come down. But he just watches for a while, mesmerized. He will go to her, of course, but for now, he wants to enjoy the view.

Apostate

She spent years denying herself, and now her soul is bruised. The scabs will heal, but she can never forget the stop signs she ignored. The whistle sounds in her mind whenever ghosts come near, and the sound deafens her heart. She cannot bear to believe again, but she's trying anyway.

Impasse

There is no way but this, for me. No one understands, but one day she will see. I mean my freedom to be a homage to her. She raised a little tiger, no clipped wing swan lives here. When we go to cross the river, she will look to me, and I will roar and dive in. She will not look me in the eye, but she will let me go. And when, someday, I can return for her, and carry her to the other side, I know that she will forgive me, because she feels me too much in her heart.

Bamboo

The mainland song seeps red into my mouth and I am fed on the purest of cultural pride and tradition. Oceans cannot break the bonds of ancestral slavery. Static on the line is no deterrent to the enforcement of norms or the employment of tactics of tension. For the same reasons that the princess cannot bear the weight of the island's crown on her head, her sister's son will inherit the earth, with all other sons. But I have just as much warrior in my blood as they, and you will know it with your own spirit when you are defeated.

Malinger

She carries all her weight in the back of her mind and hides the fang-like teeth that wait for opportunity. Do I trust her to work hard to achieve my goals? Not a chance. Her ends are hers alone, and yet she manipulates us to her means. True that at times we occasionally line up, but it's quite the dance even then. I try to keep up, but exhaustion creeps upon me, and I fear what will happen when I go.

Resplendent

The figure of a woman, in the distance, silhouetted. Behind her, the sun is resplendent, glowing with a purity, a brilliance unknown to man. This is Hope, the child of the Universe, the first and last daughter in his heart. She carries the weight of the world on her back, but she keeps a smile on her flawless face. She is not always kind, but she is real. She does not always speak with the tongue of angels, but her voice is strong and steady. She inspires trust, and she leaves no man behind, though he may abandon her.

Express

There are certain things I cannot measure with numbers or express in words, certain feelings and instincts that have led me to this place, this time. I hold them in the palm of my hand as my bare feet tremble across the grass, each step nearing me to a dark but beautiful unknown that I have faith in without seeing. Dew drops kiss the soles of my feet, and all the fears I have ever known leak out of my body and trail behind me like a train. When I wake up, I will not know what has been revealed, but I will follow my heart toward it, and I know that I will be okay.

Oman

When the streets are wet, the colors slip into the gutters and everyone laments. Why does it seem like I am the only one who loves a good storm? Part of what makes the sun shine so bright is knowing that grey is just around the corner. Sometimes I stand at the corner of the peninsula just to feel the gulf rage around me.

Languid

I take deep breaths to settle the storm in my stomach. I lie in bed for hours, mocking sleep, which is mocking me. I tell myself this can all disappear, like the scarf into the thumb, the rabbit into the hat. But in truth, even that takes work. So I guess what I'm saying is, inspite of everything, or maybe because of it, I still think of us as magic.

Valet

I park my ass right where I think I want to, and I don't back down. Sometimes. Other times I can't help driving after you, wanting to follow you to the ends of the earth, just for a chance that you'll listen. The rain is falling and thank god it is because that sound, that soothing rhythm, is the only thing keeping me sane right now. The sky cries so that I don't have to. The sky cries with me. I know it'll all feel different in the morning, I just wish it weren't so hard to understand. I wish a conflict hadn't created itself from nothing. I wish the unbelievable happiness I felt all evening hadn't melted away for a non-existent discord, an illusion of perspectives that could be so easily clarified if I had ten more minutes. Tomorrow offers itself, and I will take it. Hopefully then you will see that you are you and I am me and we never stopped working just fine.

Intramural

The boundaries of my blood sink me down below the horizon where your eyelashes rest against your skin, and when your eyes flutter open, I can't help but be startled. You are so uncovered, and I am so obscured, and for years I thought it was the other way around. You put your fingers to my pulse, but I am counting aloud, and our beats do not match up. It scares me to think, much less admit, that you might know me better than I know myself. But the truth is, maybe you do.

Lanuginous

Polar bear hair is translucent, yet it looks white from far away. That's a misunderstanding, isn't it? Like the words we speak but don't really understand. Like the things I mean but can't find a way to say correctly. Like the meanings I want you to take away from this, the truth of what I feel. You don't need to compromise yourself for me; that isn't what I'm asking. In fact, I didn't ask anything at all. I was just trying to give an honest answer. But something didn't click, and now you've gone, and I'm left here trying to solve the problem on my own.