relationships | The Poetry Corner

I Think I Fell In Love Today…

Posted on November 20, 2015 by A. Long

i think i fell in love today…

is what he said

over dinner and baked bread

i swallowed whatever it was

boiling in my head

and waited

for the careless callousness

of a passing comment to fade

to blow away inflamed rage

like waves of steam off my sage salmon

to shovel the hurt back down

my throat and drown it

what else had he done today

where had i been

work this morning

salty kiss goodbye?

had that been a sign

no playful banter or texts

grocery shopping i spent an extra hour

trying to get everything on the lists

so i wouldn’t have to make two trips

I’m knee deep in mangoes

because i know he likes them ripe

and he’s out falling in love

a quick surveillance

yields an unsatisfactory availability of weaponry

butter knives

can’t really do damage

…with salmon…

with

salmon

that

i …cooked

after digesting

what would’ve been

a light dusting

of my own foot

he smirks, tiny

calm

can we eat salmon more often

Carmen 5 (in English by Rudy Negenborn)

Posted on October 18, 2015 by A. Long

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,
and let us judge all the rumors of the old men
to be worth just one penny!
The suns are able to fall and rise:
When that brief light has fallen for us,
we must sleep a never ending night.
Give me a thousand kisses, then another hundred,
then another thousand, then a second hundred,
then yet another thousand more, then another hundred.
Then, when we have made many thousands,
we will mix them all up so that we don’t know,
and so that no one can be jealous of us when he finds out
how many kisses we have shared.

–Catallus

Videos

I’ll Get Lost, You Go Your Way

Video | Posted on October 4, 2015 by A. Long

G.Na sings an awesome break up song.

Innocence

Posted on September 27, 2015 by A. Long

shh don’t cry for the

innocents slain at their hands

innocence is often broken

don’t cry for me

i’m still here

taking it all in

but find a tear

for those two legged foes

who walk on this earth

to destroy consume and bend

your parts around your will

those hardened hearts without control

they are considered normal

and until the reign of normal ends

cry for what could have been

Midnight, Talking About Our Exes

Posted on September 15, 2015 by A. Long

The sun is still down and maybe even downer.
Two owls, one white and one large-eared,
dive into a nothingness that is a field, night-beast
in the swoop-down, (the way we all have to
make a living). Let’s be owls tonight, stay up
in the branches of ourselves, wide-eyed,
perched on the edge of euphoric plummet.
All your excellencies are making me mouse,
but I will shush and remain the quiet flyer,
the one warm beast still coming to you in the dark
despite all those old, cold, claustrophobic stars.

–Ada Limón

The Waiting

Posted on September 4, 2015 by A. Long

I wonder where he is? he asked. His thoughts were so far away from the ledge in front of him. I want him to love me but, he paused mid thought as a rock crumbled beneath the weight of his foot. Searching the sky for signs of the moon, he eased back from the ledge a little. Maybe he’s looking at the same moon. Same clouds.

His heart sunk as a small malicious voice from the back of his neck, in sharp whispers said, you don’t know that’s true. No, he said. Yes, it says, he has no need for love sick fags derailing his focus. He’s all objective and goal and you’re in the way. He doesn’t even return your phone calls. But he’s my best friend. Men don’t have best friends, that’s what brothers are for. Shut up. I love him. You think the world will let you two idiots be together. He sniffed, stifling a cry. Slowly he pulled out his phone to call him, and when he didn’t answer, sent a text that read: Pls can i stay by u. He waited. Shushing his inner demons. Clinging, terrified to feel alone facing this ledge.

The waiting. crushing. every second that passed with no reply. He crawled into a ball refusing to cry because the darkness didn’t deserve his screams.

He waited.

If I Could

Posted on August 28, 2015 by A. Long

if I could learn to love you less

the sky would open up and swallow me whole

if I could learn to love you less

i bet my success would be big enough to fill the gap of your leaving

if i could manage that

then why not bend the trees at my command

if there were less to love

they’d sing your praises from rooftops

if there were less to love

i could slide my attention to shifting through time

and finally

blot out that fusty sun

just a smidgen more heartless

and i could sour pickles at will

kill daffodils

the impossibly unknown would be in my control

i’d manifest solid homes for those without

or be the master of my own eudaimonia

in time, i could

then again

in time, i could also learn to

move the stars in the sky

teach them how to play a jazz tune

whenever the moon came around

if i could learn to love me more

i guess there’d be no point to this poem

because i would have everything

i ever needed

The Lighthouse

Posted on August 13, 2015 by A. Long

The autumn sun smiled softly across the gentle waves that lapped against the old wooden pier. The lighthouse threw a morning shadow as magpie’s note rang out from the swaying trees.

Dawn’s light poured through the dusty wooden blinds and washed over the white linen sheets that lay crumpled and kicked off the bed.

She lay naked, breathless and beautiful. Black hair tumbling across her pert breasts. ‘I love our house,’ she sighs.

He stares up at the powder blue ceiling, a little dreamy and wet. ‘I think this might be a good morning to make marshmallows,’ he replies.

–Michael Faudet