Work Text:
The Face-Off
he me,
looks, he
challenges: chases down,
puck's down, challenges,
chase me. looks.
mitts off (touch me)
moth to a flame is
too common &
deer in headlights
too trite;
if i love you,
i'm the hungry lens
of a flip phone
heralding a fight
To bear it alone
My mother was stronger than I am,
but her love could not fix broken bones.
My father fixes love with broken bones:
my wrist, snapped, in the empty corner of his room.
Your wrist snaps, cheers fill all corners of the room,
our smiles so easy we forget the coming crash.
We forget our smiles when it comes, the crash,
until promises of summer bring them back.
Whispered promises this summer bring her back,
she confesses she always flinched before impact.
We always skate unflinching towards impact,
no hairline fracture compares to your laugh.
Compared fractures and hairlines would make her laugh,
My mother was stronger than I am.
Canadien kayfabe
my boyfriend leaves his mouthguard
on our bathroom sink,
gnawed and mangled flat
a beached jellyfish
far from safe currents.
they say he leads his pack,
shredding tendons of weaker prey
and I am a mosquito,
diving-bombing down
to steal a small sip of glory.
they say he is a giant,
from his carcass we'll grow spring
and I am David,
my sling engraved with
borrowed maple leaves, mine
for as long as I'm willing
to take the shot.
but I know the truth,
I have massaged fingers on
the overworked muscles of his jaw,
I've felt my own when
gnashing out "sorry"s,
despite the hunger for more than
thrown bone white signed papers.
my boyfriend leaves his mouthguard
on our bathroom sink,
where else could he?
Home
loon calls break the night
in moscow, gulls awaken
it was a long flight