Girl Returns Misplaced and Accepting (The Moon in Chapel Hill)

———

Parking lot oyster caps dripping pastel throws

other feet touching have turned to accepting that

they’re adjacent mimics.

.

For each angry finger demanding I mend

another will break my friends from me

pushing antique furniture to its absolute limits.

.

Happened to start getting into used kitchens 

knotting wood why not speak in seventy five

word bursts bursts of inconsiderate.

.

To unsee the clasp on a necklace as the pendant.

part reprising rest, part the handholding hurts

to touch the mirror that I used to watch it all in.

.

Being trapped to the bottom of a paper rocket

in memory, with its long tail, has no balance

while falling into beds, spread hands guilty.

.

The moon was no longer visible in the morning,

coffee with no sugar anymore, through gifts

was a thing that went missing.

.

Bored and short, on the radio asking for more

than I care to spend in participation.

Expect what response? to which part of this?

.

Space which breaks innuendo into acts given

and tables we cant share again.

As if ‘ease of use’ the problem isn’t this or 

an issue to you being consistent in that,

.

A builders house is broken.

Now we’re so over missing definitions

of color and ethics and my existence.

.

Relatively certain that a TV broke my heart

The computer ended up split apart

in early May, and a poets heart.

.

That day I called, my intuition mourned.

The darker the dye the quicker the girls return.

–

Hinge story long, think less squeaky doors.

A trap braced beside the inequality.

Fresh out of plastic to well shapped forms.

.

Henhouse syndrome, sixteen other men, and

sixteen dollars of gas station candy I’m stuck on

too much hidden, throwing up in the sink.

.

Remember bread split as this waste of a summer.

Lobster where I come from are sweet, leave it

in nature to what we dont believe is true.

.

Picture us in the puzzle on a shelf, falling behind.

Failed as a primary, from mumbled to mute,

skipped you up out like a warm parachute

.

Diffusive answers to a spat of clear questions,

Having spoke with the mirror that I used to see

you in trying to feel for myself, lessens.

.

I’ve lost hands between those freckled windows.

Halloween hand holds to span that panels gap

that has never touched myself like you did.

.

Not recalling that others have memories, too.

The rules are different for everyone, and I know

only to forget, remember?

.

Just a surprise that it was the same for you.

Or shall I speak at this? Farewell compliment!?

The clasp on your necklace had left as a Pendant

.

This is the unsent goodbye that you wont ‘get’

pink blouses, and razor sharp cereal berries,  

variation as in ever changing living room sets?

. 

Allowed to speak, past conflicted sighs.

With what wonder to say as I demise,

a plague on both your houses

——

2024 J. Saliba

Summerstorm

Banking within a devil being afraid of somebody

while living roses don’t turn grey.

Frost over the heat which has broken in my heart. 

.

Performance anarchy gets lucky with wells,

you’ve built something around something surrounding naked.   

Tell me I’m being tried while driving and shaking. 

.

So face the sun already, picture you both crying.

reflecting shock that hasn’t been seen before.

Acting like you dont, wont grant the premise. 

.

Not for your nickels, those aren’t your dimes.

To edge on dimes at all. As if.

No effect on the spin becomes part ownership.  

.

Not suitable at home now, from chasing trains

escaping to tempt tugs, that child sleeps. 

In a bark-market, We understood, too.

.

You are the meat.

.

Not available at home equals retail from crashing

disconnection more than angels envy. 

Some weird sin on credit, becomes zeolite. 

.

“Promises to not tell“ forgot that they are

messages taken to the front row. 

An understudy to the center of the storm. 

.

Season two really a lesson read treads as thin

as these weeks, who counts weeks anyway?

Seas of clarity or a hurricane with a dumb name? 

.

Gained a loss of consortium, people i wouldn’t

want to consort with.

Its always the philanderers that go to Jesus. 

.

A chokepoint on the horizon, and a structured

remedy, remember this line. 

And the line you took. 

——-

2023 J.Saliba

Même est un Vice

Algonquin piedmont go figure whos

Running into the weirdest movie I haven’t tried to share

Scout niblet clockwise vices

Like no two won’t be better for this wear

“So who badly put on this costume if you lend me some space”

Ages medning would miss, and that I would love

To slip, also had peaks and plains

Last night i had a dream that we were laughing about staying

Where my fits stand happening as a chapter to skip 

through The lake i once wrote about That want 

Wants to read at a loss About your shit, 

without having so much to say of her and sigh

Absent agreement, should we

have no heart and claim but no time

Knowing better and still see this as

Girl Scout pen-pal badge has lost 

to being good at one thing 

makes other things bad, like 

How this poem is a vice, and life is a weapon 

to keep clean and to shine
—

2022 J.Saliba

Isolation Circles Sharks at a Lake

The wedge and the grief are never ending but see, so is the love 

Storms lasting beyond a sinful mirror for betrayal stained edge to edge 

I found a tree with a hole in its chest where the heart should be 

A tiny creature that stands at the base of a footbridge 

Isolation circles my run around sue will need to draw more blood than feeling alone 

sending echos down a hallway and listing

like a shipwreck to my own voice 

A rock in reflection quotes the shape of plans are as meaningless 

As a landlord claiming that lying about futures is an emotional imbalance

The pacific has no memory when you find someone else’s bag at a normie bar 

And suddenly I was afraid of nothing that was regular negligence. 

love bridges 

but water doesn’t run under any more 

You sinking while waving your hands hoping to become invisible

And I didn’t even know of you until today so maybe it worked in absence 

A balloon salesman floats as a flagship anchors boundaries  

Holding your hand over the candle and proving you won’t cry 

but this isn’t witness of much 

while doing a big thing badly closes it’s eyes. 

——-

2023 J.Saliba

Navigating the cold ground with a split lip in significant winter

Reminder to keep my chin up like I used to look at stars. 

Five stitches on someone else’s dime the last time 

We rip for much longer than three days

Just can’t find the words to thank you so I dont 

Ladies and gentlemen of the press what is so bold

Playing ping-pong on the space shuttle

Have you ever seen a dead person naked and cold? 

The skin looks like stone and missing water or home. 

Actually made me sweat in the water 

Nothing drains like mixed emotions that are shared 

Not even like a boundary it’s more like a 

Border

Caught my ear like a shooting star 

A clingy mess who’s been tapping you on the shoulders

Oddly; Panda bears, turns out they mourn

too

Well, you’ve lost weight. 

Give me two pints of paint, one black and one white

You can trick a simple animal with redecoration in spite 

So what actually happened to your rockin’ body 

It’s a damn shame I’ll never have a funeral like this

Normal modest life 

——

2023 J.Saliba