Feeling frivolous
Drowning in many words
I invite her in
To swim in the
Whitewash
Or else
She is too smart
Throw me a life ring
My bubbly personality
Giving me a hangover
Neurodivergent mother
Sweet as a soft drink
Filled with warm air
Drink sparingly
How our thoughts
Clouded by
Morning mist
Pervading sigh
Spilling whiteout
On a love note
Opportunity
Dissolves
Thief steals in
Dormer window
Just to fall
Two flights below
Invitation lost
Or expired last week
All refusals feared
Turning other cheek
Tell her everything
Never to her face
Conversation light
Lest she leave in haste
Swimming endlessly
In those two blue pools
Telling everyone
That we're playing cool
Let the eyes caress
That's a subtle tip
Never touch her face
Never kiss her lips
Such a high bar raised
Neck is craned above
Weary heart knows how
Not to be in love
Always the simple things
My silver eye spies
Seeing you always
Makes my heart fly
The way it feels
Sitting next to you
The world spins
The other way
Or so it seems
Standing in the kitchen
The truest feeling
Like fresh baked cake
Deliciousness
The way you make
Me feel
Like a small child
Not wholly in control
Holding onto
A waterballoon
Dancing in my hands
Giggling expectantly
Until tripped
Then burst
Tears swell
Over tattered peel
In flamingo pink
How my heart feels
When you leave
I can't throw
My arms around you
Perched between barren landscapes
Far as the eye squints
In the distance
Microscopic life dawns
In open spaces unseen
How we relish the resilience
Of some tiny show
Of leaves stalk reaching
Up for sunlight to ignite
It's open tongued grooves
Into being
Yet we find normalised eugenics
Those who exist between the lines
Of normativity collectivism
Turned aside by one
Derided by two
Abandoned by three
Many mouths to feed
Better defend protect
Turn inside out
Than let another
Take the mantle
When the woman till
Ten works then sleeps
A superior breed
To exist in such
Harsh remote conditions
Of isolation
Yet to grace the pages
Of top ten endemic list
For protection
Women and children
Survival of our species
Brush tipped tongue
Painted button
Curvature of spine
Red eye
Double banded
Red capped
Rarity only adds
To beauty
Why not fascinate
With uniqueness
Of each we meet
Instead pick
Feathers ruffled
To decorate head?
One and only
Every love
A scarcity
Endangered
Do we love
To obtain
Souvenirs
Stories
Take away
A part of me
Thrown about
Carelessly
Adorning
Cafe walls
Could hear
Adrenalin pumping
Shaking out limbs
Eyes on the line
Looking downwind
Peripheral gazes
Nodding whistle
Take your marks
Smoke gun bursts
Shock cool wet
Tip toe beating
Arms breath repeat
Stomach protest
Pushing onward
Suddenly crosshairs
Hand tip touch flip
One long lap
Then nothing
I survey emptiness
All eyes watching
From the stadium
No one near
But one white cap
Slowing down
Mine black
Up the wall
Walk of shame
Trudging drenched
Wet as the supermoon
Tide washed debris
Around me
I return to the start
Shake my head
Sullenly
Can I possibly
Go down waterslide
Instead?
No way replace
The fun we had
A false start
Takes all my lungs
Sweat tears restraint
Go on without me
A joy to spectate
The dating race
Innocently traversing
Over soft powder snow
Relishing in it
Wonderland encapsulates
Then turns consumes
All goodwill
Rescue
Take me down easy
Off this great peak
To safety, warmth
Care and respite
For a time
Being with you
Was being with me
But now I sigh
Love endlessly
Over goodbyes
Slippery cocktail
Equal parts
Foolish and brave
My invisible audience
Tells me don't dare
Taken aback by you
Yet delighted
Making something
Out of nothing
Just to have
To hold onto
My magic trick
All that I dreamed
Became possible
And yet, I was
A fraud, cruel
I had wanted to do
All this with you
When asked do I still
Write every day
I resume to fall
In love again
Need not be held
In our arms
To be any less real
The singular purpose
-beers bars nights-
Spending time
Though poor and hungry
This love of mine
Grateful offerings
Not asking for more
Yet nothing else will do
Cold War
Shelves half empty
Company of friends
Hard and humbling
Long sessions of joy
Laced with sadness
Longing
A decade of wondering
Ahead of me
Wishing for the truth
Holding ideal
Measuring others by it
Haters try to eradicate
Difference in history
Hold onto belief
Not discard identity
Tenuous grasp
Did we cover sufficiently?
Were you lightened
Or do you carry heavily?
If only you knew
How beautiful your
Spirituality
I could kiss it
It saved me from wiping out
Faith in humanity
You say little with
Much passion
It is wonderful to me
Here, the heart of it
Finally
I love your love
Of everything
I miss being near
Hearing it
Turning to mush
Ever since you took
Us on a journey
To the West
To the dunes
No control
Over this
There was an 'us'
Just once it escaped
Your lips
Till you put it
Back in though
Typed into my mind
Thoughts of you
A warm blanket
I put it on again
This night
As the snow illuminates
Under a full moon
My eyes on mountain
Looming over us
Yours on horizon
I could not sit
In the shadow
Of past loves
Like Ossa in a storm
Slippery slope
A snippet of things
I know
Cannot climb
Nor run away
At the base of
This landmark
Time in my life
I stake a claim
I write our names
Open door
Welcome mat
Room for you and me
To be family
One day
Set us free
Title:'The Love That Dares' Letters of LGBTQ+ Love and Friendship Through History by Smith and Vesey.
Poem is an erasure poem from author's own.
A simple picnic basket
With lemon coloured plates
Enamel handled spoons
Snuggled lie in wait
To carry a delicious bite
Of lemon flavoured cake
While staring over line
Of sky and sea where
Seal mates play
A line exists between
Though hard to see by eye
Some making waves between
When the forecast
Says to wait
So a patient sailor sits
In doldrums eating cake
Until such time fair winds
Return and she'll be
On her way
Rely on mountain weather
To restore fair winds
Set free
Or cloud the fixing points
Lost and biding
In the lee
The journey from horizon
Just as landfall
Kisses eyes
To longing pinnacle
With sea swept bellyache
Is nor the kind of journey
One would wish to take
A sweetheart watching
From on high
Might surely meet
Halfway
However far off course
A straggling current takes
Surely always carry her
Wherever body wakes
Count the stars of heaven 