edges burn more readily

edges burn more readily than centers. setting an edge alight is a simple matter, though putting it out again may not be, if it is inclined towards fire, incendiary, interested in burning. the center doesn’t light so well unless you reach it through the edge, take the slow route in, open its defenses. only water…

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sluice

when i ask to be taken you give me back to myself. what is this light, this river? i ask you to be the current running through me. instead, you open the sluice-gates and let go and the river washes both of us away.

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time is distance and distance is distance

1. time is distance and distance is distance and the heart aches to cross both, yearning across boundaries, loving across boundaries. i build a nest in my heart, furnish it lavishly, comfortably, keep it warm for when you return. you step inside, melting me with a smile and a simple, frank, “i love you,” and…

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the heart is a muscle as strong as the body

you’re running away to join the circus you’re running so hard toward your dreams you’re flying and i’m crouched here in the garden, both hands in the soil, growing roots i can only hope you’ll someday return to. i plant my heart in this warm and increasingly fertile earth while your heart grows wings to…

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held askew by beans

you like to see a little dishabille in me and i can give you this — i know how it’s done. i like a little dishabille in the garden, myself. sunflowers blooming in twenty directions, giant stalks tipped sprawling and prickly across the path. tomatoes vining up all over, whether we planted them there or…

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sapphire silk

i wanted to follow you up, not just for the sake of the silks, but for you — the powerful grace of your perfect body climbing the sapphire silks to the sky. i wanted to follow you up, climb out of the dirty necessities of my daily grind, haul myself, through strength and grace alone,…

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