The whole damn moon

 I'm not embarrassed by the ladder I built

Swaying and soaring into the sky

And the way I climbed hand-over-hand

Until my palms were as tender as my heart

And then the way I reached for her broad face

And stretched and still didn't wrap my arms around her

She was gray and radiant and I'm not embarrassed

That I lay her at your feet because I thought 

She might bring you joy. 

I'm not embarrassed by the butterflies

Preforming ariels in my guts

I'm not embarrassed that I want to spilt belly

And spill my lepidopteran insides across the the glass table of your gaze

And let you judge them, moths and monarchs both.

The princess bride and other cliches

 Filled with the bubbles of champagne

And the memory of your lips

If you want I could fly

Here I am, flaying my heart open--

Begging to rend my ribcage so you can see the tender color 

Of scarlet that is my blood

What is life but the rejoicing in 

The opportunity

To be broken again?

Winter's nearly here

 Winter is nearly here. So you know it's time for....

More poems abut Orion!

Orion my first love is always high

When the days stoop short and crooked. When night

Paints itself in deepest blue across the sky

I look to the south for his three twinkling lights.

Things fall apart, the center cannot hold,

But the only rage left in me is soft

And shivering. Braced against the growing cold

Until star boy reminds me: not all is lost.

He is the utterly gut-wrenching feeling

Of my first love. He is the emptiness

Of the after. He's the captive appeal 

Of my love's lips before we never kiss

I look south past the horizon to find

Three gleaming stars and all I've left behind