Pear Poem 3 (reading about the moon)

picture of you crouched on a rock 
calling the tides, sending strings out 
from your fingers 

hot palms you bought our 
movie tickets, too slippery to hold 
in the butter dark 

the moon, a coin, and our bodies
churning along 

crawling onto the couch,
one paw down my pants 

they say the moon is a stranger,
a case of faces

dark brown mole on your 
shining chin, as kids we teased 
it had its own population

shy islands 
we locked into each other, 
neither of us knowing 
what do with pain 

you learned so much 

eating and spitting yourself 
out again 

aged on the porch, young in the wind 
reading about Zen, making altars 
with garbage, cooking Poppy tea

living with your mother, your father, 

and then yourself, 
dying 

you were her moon, and mine 

dignified in the dark

eager and kind 

moon always looking for 
the sun of total
warmth 

dozing in the promise 

of a shadow 

lifting  

Pear Poem 2

you’d tell me tribute is futile ego homage, 
but that’s my work, I’d tell you I’m wax melting 
into a pool, almost catching your heron face  
on fire, then cleaning it up - not wanting to bother anyone, 
not trying to leave a trace but also starved for 
devotional landmarks, just not a singed egg yolk rug that 
belongs to my boss. You screech for a better try, 
flimsy conviction not weak but mutable, 
humble as in laugh at yourself as loud as 

any unhinged stranger 
letting the world bruise 
you true

Pear Poem 1

picture of you looking in the mirror

safety pin through your ear

you beautiful in a drunk lost lust pile 

healthy somehow, vain 

lines exaggerating  your eyes 

you sincere, you singing 

I met you in an XL  planet Earth t-shirt, 

you Claire Danes jaw Mean Girl stigmata 

amidst the basic bellowing demands 

of  everyone

did you sit down to eat? in the cafeteria? 

what did it sound like when you said 

iloveyou out loud? 

nasal squeak or low rumble 

or sing song sigh?

you probably said it pressed and muffled 

deep into our glossy hair cascades

or earnest gravitas face to face 

a shoe dropping from an April Fools window 

to crack the spell

I don’t want to say that anyone 

lost themselves along the way,

as if there were a way,

but still I'm asking  

is there? have you found it out there

in the garnet black night? 

is it true that we dilute 

just looking for what we already know?

you tapping the window to make everyone quiet

you spreading your arms to taste the sun 

i’m not in the business of holding you said

and I believed you

and it was true