Cat’s Out of the Box

I’m so parenthetic,

hypothetical, maybe, 

like Schrodinger’s cat, 

if the cat had a baby.

I’m untested theories,

just beakers and flame,

defy explanation,

but don’t stop the game. 

If Then (Then Now)

If 

you are lonely, 

my darling, 

it is only because 

you have forgotten 

how my heart
beats its
steady rhythm
in time
with yours.

If 

you are scared,
it can only be because
you have taken
your hand
from mine. 

Dear one,
you need only to 

reach out
your hand

to find courage. 

If 

you are distraught, 

beloved,
it is only because
you have turned
your eyes
from mine,
and taken in
the chaos
of the world. 

Return to me,
Beloved.
Do not believe 

that you lack 

any thing- 

together, 

we can move 

mountains. 

Masterpiece

The greatest beauty is 

too immense 

to take in 

all at once. 

Take a painting 

by a master- 

Michelangelo, 

perhaps, 

or Raphael, 

if you prefer. 

You cannot see 

both the cherub 

throned in clouds 

and the perfect way 

the grass 

curls around 

the Madonna’s feet. 

You must look 

at a masterpiece, 

inch 

by tiny inch 

to appreciate it 

fully, 

and even then, 

once you believe 

you have absorbed 

all there is to see, 

it will reveal 

more secrets 

to you. 

You are like that, 

my darling. 

I cannot think 

of the way 

the skin 

at the base 

of your neck 

feels against 

my lips, 

and also admire the

dark galaxies 

in your eyes. 

You are 

too much beauty 

to ever 

grow tired 

of staring. 

Just So

So shall I
call you
the moon? 

You are
so beautiful, 

so bright, and
so impossible
to reach.

Growth (Everybody’s Doing It)

Listen closely, love,

Let me whisper 

in your ear: 

You have 

never been 

less than perfect 

to me.

Every smile, 

every kiss, 

every promise 

you make 

without saying 

a word, 

they have 

put down roots 

in my soul. 

Growth 

and beauty 

will come soon, 

after these rains 

have found 

drier climes

and the sun 

once more 

grows warm. 

Listen closely, love,

and you will hear 

us 

reaching 

for one another. 

Time After Time

Time

is not 

the measure 

of love. 

I do not 

love you 

more today 

than I did 

yesterday, 

and tomorrow 

I will not 

love you less. 

You cannot 

earn more 

of my love 

with sweet words 

and kind gestures 

(although, darling, 

I would smile 

at your 

small gifts, 

and thank 

the heaven 

that sent you) 

and your sullen 

and solitary ways 

will only bring 

my love 

and pity. 

Time is not 

the measure 

of love: 

what is
eternal 

cannot be 

contained. 

It Takes Two (to Haiku)

Mid-afternoon and

again, deep into the night.

Craving never ends. 

National Haiku Day

There is so much still

that I don’t know about you.

Teach me all you are. 

April Blizzard

And I will fall
for you 

like the snow 

unapologetically, 

again 

and again,
until you are buried
beneath the weight
of my love.

Lost and Found

I am always 

losing myself 

in you, 

and having to 

find myself 

once more.

I find 

my hope 

tucked behind 

your ear,

my fear 

hidden safely 

underneath your arm,

my laughter 

laced between 

your two front teeth,

my secret tears 

collected under 

your fingernails.

How is it still true, love?

I always 

lose myself 

in you, 

but every time 

I look, 

there we are. 

Absent

Thermodynamics 

tells us
that there is 

no such thing
as cold. 

It
is a construct- 

it is merely an 

absence
of heat 

that leaves us
breathless 

and shaking.

Physics 

teaches us
that there is 

no such thing
as dark. 

Dark, too,
is an abstract- 

it is merely an 

absence
of light 

that leaves us
floundering 

and unsure. 

And maybe it is true 

of other things, too: 

misery, 

for example, 

is the
absence of joy, 

fear is the 

absence of certainty, 

and loneliness 

doesn’t exist, 

except as the 

absence
of you. 

Bradbury Dreams

I dream of scorpions, 

snakes in the dust, 

wrought iron fences, 

corrosion and rust.

I dream of smokestacks, 

a blotted-out sun,

a darkened horizon 

before day’s begun,

I dream of wastelands, 

so dark and so bleak,

a silence unbroken, 

with no one to speak. 

Abra cadabra

I could never name

all the magic inside you.

Still, I keep trying.

Citizens and Strangers

How can it be home:

this place I have never lived?

Still it calls to me.