When I unearthed her eyes were closed in a sacred blink. I dusted her lips with gold and whispered, "you are gorgeous in pieces." I saw every bone, very own ivory keys.

(you are gorgeous in pieces.)

That was when I noticed;

That was when I noticed the ring.

I thought I lost it in my oldest home

After I gave birth to my eldest son

On the top were two lions

Jaws open wide

I loved that ring I loved that ring.

Clean Skin.

Baptism fresh.

In fact,

I’ll take

my baptism back, thanks.

Thanks be to all I trust.

Thanks be to all I need.

Thanks be to those who

leave me.

Thanks be to their ghosts.

No more thanks.

This is all I know:

There is no distance

long enough to change this.

I am not young

and I will never be old.

Poems Make You Pretty

Before I left she said

bring to me these gifts

I want

 

    Abandonment of the body

 

Dishonor

    Of the heart

 

A graveyard

    for flowers

 

Cradles

  for yr guns

 

An aquirium

    full of matches

So I can play

with proximity

 

I want an arm full of sun.

You don’t memorize. Don’t light up on you sometimes.

Out of sequence. Nothing you’d want to retrace - not a thing

like a Naked Lunch. You’ve got to rehab swallow speech – it’s the lust

I’ll tell you what. Stroke the trauma. Your eyes are major skies with a

pathway to gorgeous. Your eyes are major skies with a minor chord inside.

Harpsichord badass, you have never lost a thing.

Fight.

Turn your heels into ash. “Why can’t sorrow be cherished?” I said

to no one at all. I’d follow it all if I couldn’t… Would not you?

Don’t pretend, don’t you dare pretend.

“Don’t pretend that there’s no method to smoking a cigarette.”  I thought

to myself as I watched someone smoke out of a window. Yeah, I

think there’s a method to smoking a cigarette. Ask someone. I plan to

question all. Now I’ve only been to the madhouse once or twice maybe a

few times and each time I went I interviewed som

Because, to me, Photography is just like hunting. I’m hunting for moments. I’m hunting for expression. And I’m hunting for immortality.

On MLK day: Imagine if (the) stars were black. Black, you are beautiful. White, you’re gonna have to wait your turn. You are both beautiful. But only one of you had a choice. One of you can still feel the checkered scars on your back sometimes. Especially, especially, especially Today.

But I’d get in a fight with fate for you, darling. You’re a painting. You are your own Era.

Dear Wrath. Dear Dearest. Show me myself—without the shine of prescription.

You just passed a yellow flower. That’s where I learned to grow. You just passed a yellow Flower.

That’s where I stopped my walk to film, do you remember when you passed a Brisk bottle? Listen, Just a reminder, keep your dad moving keep your mother up and keep your sister sunny cos she’s all the way in New York watching you try hard on the internet — wishing you forward cos that’s where you belong. So don’t throw the chess game up just yet. Everyone deserves their moment in the sun. And yours is not far away—don’t you know how long you’ve been walking?