memory

i woke up
when you touched my ankle
your hand over the comforter
my body, undressed
i forgot where i was
and sat up, panicked
for about four and a half seconds
a sharp inhale
and then i recognized
your room, in the darkness
your voice, as the stranger
i know now
i wanted to be completely
brutally
honest with you
and then i remembered
you were not him.

~

RNH

Red Tin

You are just the right amount of spice, my love
Like the peppermints, whole
You keep snapping
From your red tin, small
Purse, their fiery burst
Dissolves in my mouth
With just the right amount
Of sweetness.

~

RNH

cuff

Kicking up the ground
She cuffed
The dust and pawed
The landscape clear
Free from any obstacle
She struck
You, trembling
Before you even caught sight
Of the arrow.

~

RNH

Hunger

He held me by the throat
So that I could not move
So that I could not leave
Deer to the hunter's gun cleaved.

~

RNH

exhale, first

He said, "I've got you."
And I felt I could finally
Let go.

~

RNH

Zipped

Buttons and zippers
Impeding soft fingers
I pull
You where I want you
I pull you within.

~

RNH

Trestle

choo-choo train
with the whistle broken
and the brakes unfixed
keeps charging
watch out
the rails may
twist.

~

RNH

Forbidden

Liquified
I pour myself out
And escape
Through the whispers and unlocked
Keyholes.

~

RNH

Lyricist

Your sonnets fall on empty conch shells.
Your rhapsodies on cement.

~

RNH

Growl

Pushing the boundary
Too much envelope
Licking, you pacify
Only the most
Basic part of me
Growling, but for the moment,
still.

~

RNH

Fatal Figure

Beautiful woman took
One too many
Overdosed on their make believe
Internalized
Fiction
Until she
Collapsed.

~

RNH

Stroke

Touch me where the pain
does not hurt
the lines
erasable
if you make them so.

~

RNH

Weep

Men that are boys that are
Not who they wish they were
The dissatisfaction so tangible
I feel it weeping from their pores.

~

RNH

Brooklyn Crowd

These people all need a bath
And a clean set of clothes
Someone to care
Whether or not
They come home.

~

RNH

Linked

She held the heavy door for me
And I held it for him
And so began the double helix
Of kindness
With a single person's motion
The infinity of good will.

~

RNH

fortitude

let me be lost in your voice and your handprints
let me be found in your silence and arms.

~

RNH

Protestor

your sign, unraised
upside down
provokes the passengers
to read, a passage
Biblical and in protest,
love your neighbor
love thyself.

~

RNH

The Visual

Yes, I see you.
I SEE
You.

~

RNH

Pretend

You show me
Your pretenses
With burnt hands
And dirty mind
I see behind your hardened expression
The blackened eyes inside
Your fists, I hold
That precious heart
With moth's wings
In pinched fingers
Thrash what you will.

~

RNH

From Safety

The clack of horses' hooves
Drums loud
Signals the war
And the departure
From safety.

~

RNH

Static

I surrender
So I can possess
This part of you
Only everything
Will be enough
Don't hold back now...

~

RNH

implore

with only one spine
and multiple faces
she looked at me
hands down
eyes imploring
approval seeking consummation
a deceptive vision
the tunnel
luminescent
mirrors reflecting without
reflection, a lost
child seeking attention
and shelter
where there is none...

~

RNH

message in a bottle

There will be bad days
There will be false hopes
There will be disappointments
And there will be complete
Misunderstandings
And none of these
Spectacular
Catastrophes
Will rob you of your integrity
You will endure.

~

RNH

there, I said it

I am not proud of you.
I never have been.

~

RNH

Not Even

It is okay that you disappoint me
You are not even worth
My anger
You are not even worth
My tears.

~

RNH

partner in crime

I was the Sherlock to your
Holmes, forever searching out
your tedious, bungled
plot lines stuck in droll
archaic references, theories
in cobblestone, drove you
home from the bottled
crime scene, our Rorschach
test spilling out inky secrets
seeping blood from a silhouette
that did not point directly
to the criminal, but to always
whom you least expected.

~

RNH

his girl

diego's girl
looked at you
with puzzle-piece eyes
jig-sawed your heart in two
and green saw red saw color
blind
bats pawing at each other
naked bodies hung
upside down, her coat
strewn across her uncrossed arms
as ambivalent, she stood
and walked away
with him...

~

RNH

metallurgy

and if the engines could perceive
consciousness in electronics
chains of personality
bonding metal and memory
perfection would not be a possibility
but an answerable question
a series
of one's and O's...

~

RNH 

Second Chance

You will be my boat
And I will be your Noah
And there will be a great flood
And I will guide you home.

~

RNH

scripted patterns

I am tired of being mothers
To these men who were never
Loved by their own
I lose my patience with the same
Patterns
Them, unable to attach to anything
And I, unable to let go.

~

RNH

Herself, Sky

Her face
As the sky
Pours open
And radiates
Light, when she's happy
But lo, the rain when she cries...

~

RNH

Fangs

Feeding the monster
You recoiled
At the sight and sound
Of teeth
As if I would
Not know how to fight back
Nor possess the means.

~

RNH

Claimant

You are not
Possessive of me
You do not care where
Or who I am
With, or even ask
When you can see me, if
You can ever see me again
And yet, I oblige
And yet, I sit silent
And yet, I wait.

~

RNH

Attention

When I give you my attention
It will be
Undivided
Total
And if
I give you my attention
Be ready
Bright lights
Are often
A warning.

~

RNH

blink

you were all eyes
and brandished swords
swaying good humor and confidence
across the room as you
leaned into your hip
and the musicians
did not even notice
your admittance
until you took up half of their audience
in the time it took to blink.

~

RNH

cling

clung to her body
like a tree trunk climbing
limbs entangled
holding the circumference
of the wild earth inside her
three
elements of contention
burning sky into water
and the texture of her
devotee
admonished to his knees.

~

RNH

The Vision

archway splattered with primary colors
witnesses to apple and lemon
pigments bursting their vibrant
voices singing in the leaves
green as little peas plucked
from the palette of God's
gentle hand...

~

RNH

summer cues

pool-splashing
sunglasses-wearing
stripey-towel-laying-out
plastic-chair-relaxing
coatings of sunscreen
sips from an ice-cold drink...

~

RNH

skin lessons

coarse, red bricks
sawed my skin
when i was twelve

and i knew as i caught myself
the house would be empty
and my voice would ring out loud.

~

RNH

serenade

scattered light through tiny
windows, tinted glass
revealing shapes
and shadows
ignorance as blissful
labels serenade them
but never contain.

~

RNH

button-hole anger

button-hole anger
slips in and slips
out
looping the energy
the faint noose of calm
around anarchy
choking on bitterness
silencing disdain.

~

RNH

stack

stacked up the indifference
like patience to a stranger
willing time to gather
her victims
simply because she
told them so.

~

RNH

rabbit heart

i buried her yesterday
out in the backward
her soft little ears held gently
by the earth and my careful
hands
catching
too many tears
to count
too many broken hearts
in need of mending.

~

RNH

exacto

if we were to be exact
sentences might become edges
where oblivious people cut
themselves, tight rope
tiptoe
talking
you lasted for two seconds
i watched you
getting pick-pocketed
careful now
i have my rapiers, too.

~

RNH

the usual

for Kay Sandoval...

we sat down at a table
sat at many times before
frequent lunches spent between us
frequent stories shared and more
swapped over egg drop soup and wontons
laughter, glowing, warmly streamed
across our tales of the mysterious and the silly
and everything in between
we chose to support each other
through every kind and cruel of weather
we walked together
to our "usual"
sushi lunch spot
donned with a best friend.

~

RNH