No Translation

Bare my forearm
      for the machine
          Puncture me
               with the squid ink
            [It’s not that bad
              Everything hurts so,
                    focus on that    &
                        penetrate/]
                
            Play silly games
                 Who’s tempered/who will break?
          I’m rowing a path I think you’ll take
                Reflections of candlelight
       Sunset smudge every mushroom cap
                        Or are they just glowing
                         & the second time is easier
            Maybe I just needed to wade
              
     These ancient buildings are crumbling
            for some reason I recall their
                   resilience
                     like I remember myself
                        [maybe I’m not giving credit
                             again, maybe, maybe]

               Let’s play marbles, my love
             next I’m ashore, in our built up
                        pleasure ground
                           I’ll let you win
                           I’ll let you win
          

                   –LM

[Heavily inspired by Squid Game]
                           

Memories

Short-fused teenage girl, after a mini-war,
      abandoned house on her own
         & arrived to the church she
               imagined, was her home
Away from home
     
 [her playground, that tiny daffodil garden]
 
& set on a picnic table
cross-legged, right about this time
of night and year,
she noticed the silhouette
of a strange man emerge from the trees
                         hooded, and muttering,
                                 “Hello,”
                         Approaching. . .

–LM

Then there was One

I grind my teeth in my sleep
& halfheartedly say it must be stress
I don’t know that yet… maybe I’m
too tightly “wired” & something
flipped the Switch
I am a blackened bulb st(r)uck on

I am the ghost that reappears unaged
from the day you last saw me alive
My eyes coast over; misty goldgray glass
held up to a warm icy blue
& it’s like I never saw you
How much I like to play “pretend”!

Where
the fuck
have all of my “friends”
[gone] to?

–LM

 

 

(Author’s Note: Peering through a hindsight glass can make old faces appear in color like a kaleidoscope.)

Sea Glass

And as the rugged color
Of falling leaves dribbled
from your fingers

I inhaled slowly, minding a burning tip
Knowing as time speeds by Your embers
will be snuffed by rising white
and lakes of ice

These raw mountains hold you captive
& gazing on them I am reminded why
Nature was always your beautiful,
patient mistress

And she’ll raise her glass with you
In my unnoticed absence

“Keep these pieces for me,” she’ll whisper,
“Your trophies from the sea.”

Her kiss
was unforgettable.

–LM

Night Shift

Anxiously I await the dawn
For its burning sienna glow
Is my release
Choked in black, burgundy and plaid
I exhale steam

This midnight blue canvas
Beautifully silent; its language caught
In blowing leaves and rustling trees
Branches reaching out
To me

 

–LM