"Shoelaces"

"Shoelaces" 

Standing still in this place.
This face full of creamy skin.
Hue assured as milky
complete with hair this silky
whether short,
straight
or stringy. 

You. 

The often romanticized dream
I can now proclaim as real.
Everything we feel
as new and sudden
as the first chance.
Short glance before I step away
telling myself
"enough today"
as if I stand in compliance.
Still shots of you in silence
stir in me the dirtiest of violent thoughts.
Power uncommon
coursing through the overlooked. 

You. 

Never overwhelmed
at the helm of life.
Strife still stings
but you tie those strings.
Trifling things
but you tie those strings.
Pain attached
but you break that latch
and you scrape and scratch
and you peel that back. 

Does it feel like that when....?
I imagine.
I've.....imagined.
Fantasized honestly. 

I've seen
vandals in sandals
no more fit for the mantle
than that which collects dust.
The must of their tread
wreaks of ambition driven stale.
Ankles pale from lack of circulation.
Interpretation of mid-climb
forever forging a position
construed for blaming time
for the self served transgression
known as lack of progression. 

I've witnessed the witless.
Skipping in slippers.
Sipper of the cheapest brand.
Calloused hands
hug the plastic bottle.
Full throttle past the tonsils
Enter route to the liver.
Giver of tales
from years no longer recent.
Decent in self perception.
In their mirror a reflection
of what would have been
and what used to be.
Used to see
the opportunity in all things.
Now the lonesome heart sings
as the mind sways,
mumbling. 

Stumbling upon your design
is for the fortunate among us
and I'm still rubbing my eyes.
Clouds that drift this high
find time to displace.
God's grace
bathing over you in layers
thick enough to taste days away.
Words I've yet to say
never make it past my grin.
Smiles that mix the love within
with a bevy of new sins
we've enjoyed a hundred times
and then
for as long as my imagination lingers. 

Fingers formed for knots
that flip flops know nothing of.
Bare or gloved,
those hands reach
across each impedance
with the will to find balance.
Challenged daily
by those falling,
sailing,
flailing laces. 

Places like this
where my mind could slip
into the deepest sleep
if it meant our hearts could creep
closer with each nightly stroll.
Time took its toll
but the moments are worth a ransom
just to have some sensation. 

To feel your grip.
Your twist.
Your tuck between loops
circling hoops that trace this
precursor for the pace
where I can stand in place
hoping this life would take the time
to just embrace your face as I do
instead of trying to
outrun,
outlast
or simply look past it. 

Maybe we'll create new habits... 

Written By: Devin Joseph Metz

"811"

"811"

It was almost an accident.

Accurate assuming
that this amusing perusing
would reach further than this bed.
I'm further in your head
than the heart could ever profess.
I confess that this is comfortable.
Controversial maybe
but the sticks and stones you're saving
barely bang or brush
or shave these whiskers.
Don't ask me to whisper
when I was the mister
that could poke his way through lies

with his eyes half open
and your thighs fully fanned.
Fancy hands that hold some history.
Your misery my absence.

It was some sort of intentional.

Even cynical, smug texts
would end up in tugs next.
Ephemeral rough sex.
I was the very best.
Tale told by every ex
overhearing they weren't good.
Used to wonder what's good
but I've seen this place.
I'm good
and I should
turn down the proposition.
Unless we talk,
don't care to listen.
When you spit shine,
I glare and glisten.
Unless I walk,
you aren't my mission
but that shit's mine.

I barely miss it.

Narrow in escape.
I have the cape.
I wouldn't save it, though.
Quick behind the drapes.
Embrace your shape
before I wave and go.
Made calls from the ground below.
Heard the yearning sounds below.
Unless you resound in "No"
way under the ground I go.
Whether it be sun or snow,
Weather underground to blow.
Lost beneath your lava flow.
Watched how high the lava goes
just for kicks and now you know
our time was picked without the show.

You wouldn't understand.
I'm a man
so isn't that my trait?
Every loop and strand
recalled like rubber bands
in the hands of fate.
Casualty of mockery.
Overtime you've docked from me.
Over time you'd knock for me
to display your hypocrisy

and not for me.
Rather so you'd feel better.
She was a flame.
I'll soon forget her
but I remember you so vivid.
Lonesome nights just lost and livid.
Lust like lipids once lukewarm
soon burn like fat to singe and harm
and hurt so good the helpless victim.
No real thrill. No life within them.
Salty with the bitter taste.
Squint your eyes and smush your face.
Milk and honey much misplaced.
Melting moments soon displaced

and where we stand
there are no plans
to lay with limbs
I part with hands.
I'm not your past.
I'm just a man.
I've no demands.
Not anymore.
No settled score.
Unsettled more with your permission.
Made prior calls in my position.
Once lined your walls with peak precision
but when you fall from my omission,
spare me the slight of your skewed vision.

Checked beforehand
long before hands
would be so instrumental.
Neck still purple, red and riddled.
Gasps from flesh that grazed my dental.
Hapless test confused the mental.
Had your guess been influential,
this would all be incidental

but this was almost accidental.

 















Almost is the most
that we could ever hope for
mostly.

Written By: Devin Joseph Metz