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