Category: Sonnets (page 5 of 8)

He was a jealous husband without a wife.
I needed security and he gave me bullets
to rain down upon those discreet affairs
(which came, and passed. We settled in
to our familiar routine: me with my cat
and he out stalking prey. At night he’d
return with greenbacks in his ochre eye,
demanding fidelity, abstract truth and an
Amerikan way of life. I don’t understand
how it came to this. I trusted him with
my life savings. He didn’t believe in me.
I see it now (with the clarity of sight
denied the blind. I sign divorce papers.
His mistrust did not (a coalition make.

One day I’ll delete all of my passwords,
all those hard to remember combinations
of numbers and letters, and replace them
with various names I’ve made up for you.
That way, I’ll never forget my passwords
again, and every time I type one of them
in I’ll think of you, or at least one of
those names for you I already mentioned.
I’ve got all the security I’ll ever need
right here in this series of secret code
words no one else could ever crack. This
plan will however require me to think up
a few more. You see, I have too many pass-
words, and not enough names for you yet.

I am the crow! Sitting on the horse’s head!
Listen to me, bloated fields! Hark, ye old
windmills and lanes! I’m a children’s story
book! Hey, black wings! Scary rainbow oils!

I am the snow! Waiting for the sun to die!
Stomping through their lonely hoofprints!
Running off like steam at the mouth! Let’s
eradicate gold and plagiarise the sunset!

I am the know! Together with the horse and
crow I bang out hits to feed the sparrows!
Incendiary! Bonfire whig! I am the element
that science hasn’t discovered yet! Wham!

I am the crow! Sitting on the horse’s head!
I am the horse! Sit somewhere else instead!

I’m eating your voice like it’s sugar and it
is: raw brown sugar on a spoon. The phone is
a spoon. Your voice is inside the phone. I’m
inside your rainbows, ice. I hear beeps (the
time runs out and we’re disconnecting again.
Outside the weather reporter runs around on
cloud nine because here’s another sunny day!
I told you so. Translation engine, re-kindle
these lonely spoons! I’m a hurried shower or
a missed train. Some things remain constant:
freckles, sunshine and coffee. Others start
to blur: time differences, texts and dreams,
expressing new beginnings, small bird calls.

Nobody knows. Nobody knows what it means.
Jippie! We can speak freely here. Speak.
I’ll send you desires in the mail. We’ll
end up somewhere between the stars. It’s
making me crazy. It’s beyond real. Smile.
The world’s a mirror. You look good in it.
My dreams explode. No wonder. In the dark,
no one can see us. Nobody can hear these
voices. Purr. Whisper. Dial tone. Quiet.
There’s a spiral. There’s the staircase.
Running down snow-bound streets. Walking.
Swimming. Listening to special playlists.
Together, the same. Bam. I’m the bouncer
outside the door. And you? You’re my VIP.