Acer Sacharrum

Sometimes there is so much to love

that it hurts.

Like a hole, waiting to be emptied as it's being filled.

That preemptive pain; anticipation of loss.

But those words are too big to quite describe this --

I am not a straight line

I am crooked 

I am curved

I am queer

Please, do not try to measure me

Please, do not waste your energy

On such a tiny being such as I

Footprints of tourists painting the sand,

The cries of the ocean berating the land.

Chappell Roan and milestones,

Informing the world we aren’t fighting alone.

Ten teenagers talking til the old year gives way,

The screen in my window’s still down —

no wonder it’s so cold up here.

You’d think I’d know better, a house this old, this time of year.

And here I thought I shivered for the stress,

It’s getting hard to tell apart

My head from hell,

My melting heart:

A puddle on my driveway,

A stain upon my shirt.

Please just run away —

I don’t want you getting hurt.

I’ve never been religious much —

My Faith is in the trees.

The sort of Lord I worship flies among the Bumblebees.

And my idea of Heaven is buried ‘neath Her leaves —