By Amy Simone Piller
I cannot quite see you
insisting on staying beneath the sheets
until the sun rises you from your almosts.
And though I will never know you for sure
you are my why.
May the dreams heaped on your shoulders
be not a burden
but a slow release of yes.
By Amy Simone Piller
I cannot notice you
for you have passed from noticing.
You are already on to the better things
like honey suckle on a fence
we pass on a walk
to nowhere but now.
May you never be trapped
by the trappings of memory;
may you never be tainted
by overthought.
By Amy Simone Piller
I watched as you rested
overexposed
sentenced to the page
lacking hope
high on nostalgia
unable to be undone.
May you be remembered
in the mind of children
as they try to fall asleep.
By Amy Simone Piller
Where was it?
We lose detail one by one
laidout first house undone
handle on the bathroom cupboard gone.
Between him and she
pronouned space,
prolonged switch in tense
When no one watches,
mystery becomes became
will you remember the handle
or the way hands graze?
Our brains limited maps
rarely road trip beyond;
we pave the future
on an incomplete now.
By Amy Simone Piller
A stack of hey
a pail of water
hunger and thirst
the curse of nothing
being worse
inaction
lack thereof
unassurance
frozen
lost.
Two things never equal
everything costs
your mind weighs and balances
constantly fraught
the stars too far
the desk too close
the subsequent actions
in need of equations unknown.
What else gets diametrically opposed?
Love and independence
vital signs interwoven
in the middle of
tomorrow coming.
By Amy Simone Piller
Teacher, teacher
strange perspective
more didactic
than intended.
Prospective lessons
on a bullet:
melt it down to elements,
discuss in depth what matters;
pitch it as an artifact
a relic of the war
discuss what we are or are not
should or should not
be fighting for;
maybe I should hide it
far, far away
amass a shield around it
protect resilient beliefs in peace.
Maybe a free-write on the bullet
would truly [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
I watched while you towered over them
sneering evilly and then laughed it off over lunch.
I listened to you scream “you poisonous rats,â€
loud enough to disrupt us next door.
I heard your Texas drawl whisper
“I wouldn’t piss on them if they were burning.â€
I tasted the blood on my bitten back tongue
when you said a woman never could [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
I’m from New York City
where I never had the chance
to move here
and not write
love poems
for two years,
where optimism was a form of radicalism
so strong
I didn’t know I was hopeful.
Fast pace so how it was
I didn’t know how to appreciate slow.
Speed so sure
I forget how to bring it
find myself a routine of who knows why
trying to [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
Let letters live
so many syntactical turns
to meander.
I apologize for any imagined happenings
my mind goes places
many misfutureconjugations
(English is tough that way).
Thank you for the evening.
How nice to see you.
Enjoy the warm
weather.
By Amy Simone Piller
You have ideas that plague you like a tick
and yet you have not sat to write in weeks.
without the time, you’ll surely soon be sick.
Is being authentic merely a shtick?
Defenses allured, you attempt antiques,
you have ideas that plague you like a tick.
Have you faith enough to write, take the risk,
pages of abandon, clothes in a [...]