So I write a lot of poetry but never post it. Figured I’d share some.

One, the kind of stuff I normally write:

Arson

It’s because of fire that I loved you:

because of the heat, the brightness

and the shadows you cast in me; because

we could destroy everything

in the path of our need, and because we burned

so prettily together, like stars.

And a second, because Matthew (who likes rhythm and rhyme) asked me to write a poem about him and the dog:

Puppy

O once there was a little pup

who truly loved his boy –

and where the master went, the puppy

followed like a toy.

They ran through grass, they ran through snow,

they ran through puddles deep,

and after dinner, one on couch,

and one in crate, they’d sleep.

The boy loved puppy very much

except for when he peed

in places that he shouldn’t have –

a truly awful deed.

The boy would scold his little dog

and swing his envelope,

but in spite of any scolding,

puppy never seemed to mope.

He followed boy, no matter what,

excited, not subdued,

especially when in boy’s hand

he saw a bit of food.

And so the pup, his boy, and girl

lived happily together,

having snacks and licks and love

forever and forever.

And what the hell; if you made it this far, a bonus third:

Confession

I must confess, I have lost your letter,

the one you scrawled in pencil

sitting in the airport, waiting for your plane.

I envision you scribbling: head bent,

black hair falling like a crow’s wing

to shelter frantic eyes. You were flying

from home, on a desperate search for yourself.

(Did it work? You never said.)

You came back bearing a gift – my name

written impossibly small on a grain of rice.

How tiny, how perfect, how little

it amounted to.