Tunnel Vision

Long separated by cruel fate,
the star-crossed lovers raced across
the grassy field toward each other
like two freight trains,
One having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m.
traveling at 55 mph,
The other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m.
at a speed of 35 mph,
Colliding early just outside of
Springfield at 7:04
going a bone-jarring, slightly over the speed
limit, 61 mph.
Trestles twisted and crunched,
strips of burning metal wrapped around,
Both holding them in place
and catapulting them
to somewhere else entirely.
“I was so worried,” she said,
with ash in her hair
and fire in her mouth.
“Worried?” he asked,
carefully plucking shrapnel
out of her eye and placing it
in his pocket.
She sighed hot air into him,
smoke billowing out her nostrils,
obscuring the carnage
so that, for a moment,
she was all he could see,
She breathed, “Yes,” as he inhaled it,
“I thought I’d never get here.”

The View From His Window

my hand
pressed against your
Pane cold coursing
through my fingertips,
traveling straight to my heart
like an arrow, shot perfectly
Without hesitation
you turn around,
but I am translucent, as always,
and your eyes go through me,
leaving behind holes, burning
like dry ice and my vapor rises,
condensing in a slow-spreading
pattern on your window
until, with shock, you notice
and stare at what’s left of me,
in awe of the intricate contours
I’ve so discreetly etched
into your impenetrable armor.

Natural Disaster

Thoughts zoom past my head
But I can’t grab hold of one
Inside down and upside out
An earth-shattering wholeness…
All this, when you smile.

Truth

We care about the truth,
Pure, plain, and simple.
But truth never is.
It’s dirty and complicated
And sometimes more shameful
Than a lie.
And truths to you

Are lies to me,
And our eyes do not
See the same colors.
We argue red and orange
Until we bleed purple
Rivulets that flow over each other,

Mixing and curing under our feet,
But we refuse to watch because we
Cannot concede our simple truths.
And we wonder how long
We will have to hold

Each other’s eyelids open
Until it’s finally clear--
Not realizing that our irises
Deteriorated years ago.

The truth has moved too far away now;
But we squint to see its blurry image
For a long, long time….

Until the wind tears at our pupils
And all we’re left with are empty

Black spheres, staring blind.