1.
    Poppies

my love

the unashamed ministry of proximity
as an unspoken promise
between our two nudes

leaves me
trembling
for you

so if you ever feel
like you are losing me

just follow home the quaking

and put us both at ease.

2.
    Moonvine

I am awestruck and envious

of the ease by which you dare undress

to stand at attention
naked and night-blooming
like a thumbnail moon at dusk
when every eye is fixed upon the sky
stitching itself back together
from an unraveling sun

you are brave enough to remain your whole self
to stand there untouched

still unchanged
even when it suddenly falls to you
to shine alone
as the last light to carry us
through the night

even when all eyes
hide
within the barbwire wrapped womb of sleep
and it would be only too easy
for anyone
to get away with cheating

you do not dim

you remain
until the darkness fades

ready to do it all again

to love until it breaks you
and even then
to love
unwavering.

3.
    Yellow Tulips

as a poet
and so too in love
I will remain unfinished
until I find within my life
that I mattered just as much
in silence

4.
    Roses

our scars have turned to thorns

in anticipation

for the return of yesterday’s hands

and so tomorrow’s romantic foes

shall have to bleed

before getting the chance

to pick apart

our retentive hearts

5.
    Aster

of all the wishes
Man ever made
upon falling stars

I wonder
if any of them
made for fitting eulogies

worthy of light’s withering

something so loving and bright
that it could fill its place in dim

but perhaps
the night is meant
to look emptier without it

perhaps we are cruel for wishing love would linger.

6.
    Dandelion

my love,

even without the promise of rebirth
do not feel the need to fear our demise

do not share their impulse
to hold out against death

for even if it seems
unfair, unrighteous and unjust
what other due reciprocation could there be
for an imperfect God’s impossible love

than to be
completely and unequivocally be
everything at once
until we’re not?

7.
    Forget-Me-Nots

and lover,

don’t forget
to grow a flower for the ferryman

for him to cast
onto the melancholic banks
of river Death
as he sets off

to honor the memory
of all we’ve ever had

don’t forget
to be forgotten

upon your surrender to her softness
as you finally relent

it is okay
it is okay my love
to let me go at battle’s end.