When a Girl Breaks Your Heart

When a girl breaks your heart, son,
you never forget her; soon enough,
you'll see what I mean.

I remember how it happens -
She turns and smiles at you, pretty
surprising to your oblivious self.

Docked

The clouds sailed the sea above

the station where I pumped gas,
the breeze like waves teasing
the fuel-fumed dock

But the broken nozzle demanded
a firm grip on the handle, and I
must be practical, after all
this time without wings or sails

Still, the wind whispers a call
to the weighted, would-be wayfarer,
the siren summons of the free
and boundless blue sky

And I on the cement stood
anchored by the greasy hose
beside the cigarette ads

You (Won't) Only Live Once

You Only Live Once.

The inspiration for anything from skydiving to one-night-stands, “YOLO” has become one of the favorite hashtag-maxims of this generation. It makes sense. Too many of us spend life standing on the sidelines, watching others seize opportunities we ourselves are too afraid to chance, allowing the parade of days and years to float past us. We need something to get us in the game, an energy drink for the soul, a kick in the inner constitution. We need a 4-letter reminder that we only get one shot at this crazy existence and that we had better start giving it all we’ve got.

“You are never going to see these people again,” says the blind cosmos. “So who cares what they think?”

The Artist Uses Interruptions

He uses all things:

The setting sun
like a stop light on the horizon
pausing to paint the cloudless canvas
dome of this dimming Cathedral,
where instead we bustle in boxes
and sleep in our motor exhaust

The twilight interrupted
by an airplane, tiny as a gnat
across the wet paint, streaking
a sliver of light in its wake,
a pen knife unsealing the sky
like an open letter, reading

The alarming message of morning:
"Not another night shall pass -
the Day has come like a thief"