Better Off Alone Together

Currently Hearing: I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone by Crime in Stereo

I had totally forgotten about this poem. It's way too good, and, God willing, I hope to be able to recite this to my wife one day.

"Wound" by Larry Levis

I’ve loved you
the way a man loves an old wound
picked up in a razor fight

on a street nobody remembers.
Look at him:
even in the dark, he touches it gently.

This Is for the Days

Currently Hearing: We've Been Talking by Enemies

This is for the days when
everything feels
as if it’s kissing you with
an open mouth.
For the days when girls’
eyes seem brighter
and their faces take on
the perfect shape.
And watching the neighbor’s
son on his skateboard
is like looking at a film
from your past.
For the days that seem to
write their own
soundtrack – the grass
scratches your skin like
a needle on a record.
May we forever feel that
we are virgins,
and that these days are more
than numbers falling
off of a calendar
and onto the dusty floor.

How Do You Feel About This?

“The Stories of our Youth”

From their windows, all the young girls
see midnight’s white confetti
when it’s flung against the sky
like pebbles down a well.
It is here they make their wishes, and
dream dreams of raising children;
they reach their fingers towards
the heavens as if to touch a tiny face.

In the alleys, all the young boys
hurl insults at each other
and put on faces like their fathers
as they learn to act like men.
It is here that their reflections
will age in dirty puddles;
they stretch their hands out to
the ladies who forgot about the stars.