Out There in the Night

A cold still night found me
Sitting by my fireplace
Sipping bourbon
In my rugged little cabin
My glass filthy-
from the soot on my fingers
As I sat in silence
Listening to the woods outside
The owl out there in a tree
The gossiping crickets
And suddenly
The crunch and snapping
of the dead leaves and twigs
on the ground
I tabled my drink and found a window
Nothing yet in sight
Just hard/heavy footsteps
Bringing someone large in my direction
I brought my hound out and put him on a chain
I squinted into the dark
Waiting
For brush to shake
For branches to give way
As I aimed my little rifle
Just a .22
I stood and waited
Shaking and shivering
in the cold
Knowing that this gun
Will not stop a thing that size-
those steps are carrying
with less than ten rounds
The slam/crunch/snap
Those soul-shaking footsteps
Out there
in the dark
The forest gone silent then
The crickets hushed
My chest and shoulders jolt
With the sound of each horrible strident stomp-
coming from behind the trees

http://www.joshuafinkpoet.com/

Winter #1

Radiator warm,
           uncomfortable;
Like unwanted love.

May 31st 2014 1:07pm

When we walk Joey hums the sound of my footsteps hitting the street.

And the rain falls but it's ok because it makes the roses come up.

Joey stays awake so I can sleep. He takes my hand off the wheel and puts me to bed. 

Nathaniel tells this story.

He's telling a story of his sister.

There is a calm and the light in the sky is yellow. Thunderstorm weather.  Everything is ok, I feel safe.

I am their only sister.

These dreams are rare. 

May, 2014

I was alive for one moment

When you touched my hand

All the blood rushed to my head

I toppled over 

And never got up again 

The Picking Moon

gently blushing now
as gravity pulls her in
to a grand adage

the demure rising
long before she says adieu
'til the next harvest

Maybe I won't have to tell you all the things within my infinite heart.
Maybe you will just stand by me and already know.
Maybe you will understand things they never intended there to be words for.
Maybe you'll look me in the eye and that will say enough.
Maybe you will hold my hand and find home between our fingers.
Maybe you'll know what love really is.
How it holds no shape.
And of its endlessness.

Now

This one time I called you when I was drunk and I barely knew you it was like we had just met. Like we hadn't slept next to one another for months. Because we had and we hadn't. This one time you called me and I had never known you and it was like we had known one another for lifetimes beforehand. We talked until the sun rose or until one or the other fell asleep on the line... I've always been vulnerable. I've always been right fucking here. As far away as I may seem. This is all I've got. Take it or turn away. Or hold me here forever. Cause that's what I'm asking from this frenzy life. Take me or turn away. Don't keep me for the sake of keeping. Take me or turn away...

There are things I want dead in my life.

There are three candles; one of them has gone out. 

Ballerina

I had a dream that you loved me because I was a ballerina.

That there were glasses of wine on the floorboards and I took a glass on my way down.

There was a girl critiquing black irises and adding pearls for depth and layer.

There was a girl upset over a lost wedding ring she claimed was stolen.

I had a dream I took your hand and lead you down between the floorboards. 

I had a dream I was a ballerina. 

I was thin and wearing blue and you grabbed my waist. 

You wouldn't stop talking. 

The girl with the ring wouldn't stop talking, or the girls about the irises. 

No one could stop talking. 

People will talk to you if you are a pretty girl alone at a bar.

I became aware of the shape of my kneecap the third drink in. When I stand up I will be drunk. I will use my newly discovered joint to move the rest of my body out the door into the oddly frigid LA air. I will smoke the remainder of a cigarette I rolled earlier. 

I will meet someone I know I've met before who is drunk and kinda sad but still fun and aware of himself. We will know some of the same people if we talk long enough. 

for the sake of secrets

I want to give you all of this if you just take the time to give to it

I don't have things you want to see

I have secrets hidden under my skirt

I have broken bits left on the floor 

no one careful enough to sweep them up

they'll stick in your feet

Unmeasurable slivers 

that embed themselves into your flesh that the body then attempts to reject 

with a throbbing 

feeling like a bruise 

You leave me with an itch 

You bow and smile and only we know what the other prays for

your touch is so far away

we brush by one another

we catch each others eyes and I want to rip them from your head so you can't ever look at me like that again 

you would still with empty sockets 

because when some things are born they are given a life beyond their bearers that lives on so strongly without their presence 

for the sake of secrets

Ovals

I am leaving flakes of skin everywhere hoping that its enough.

things happen to people

and they go away

things happen 

old shapes die

circles are pressed into ovals and wobble instead of rolling sweetly along 

you can't live in the past 

although there is no denying what the past has made you- your past is something maybe you can't live in, 

but you live with forever

the past has left me crippled 

things happen to people

they go away

Sometimes I think we have forgotten what love is.

it's thought to be something you seek or obtain or yearn for or live without or are void of or overflow with or need or want or have or don't or feel or see... something that is lost or taken or given...

these are ways we complicate simple things like love

No, love is like silence.

Love is like breath.

Love is a bowl movement.

Love is a hiccup.

Love is like waking up.

Love is the grey hues of night 

Love is a blur

Love is the space between two objects

It is something that simply is and always will be.
It's just there.

Don't complicate it.

My hair, the flakes of skin

they are the same as love 

anywhere I have been they are left behind

everyone leaves skin and hair all over everything. 

Precious

Don't let anyone in

Don't let them touch you

Don't let them look at you

Don't expose any part of yourself

Be the lone tree on a hill

As the sun sets; a silhouette 

Be a mother bear defending your feelings as cubs 

To roll and tumble careless in the sun under the sky with leaves 

Be the baby cub who knows its protected dancing wildly

Be the silence, in its patience and wisdom

A mouse with quick tiny eyes that is hard to catch

Be the beauty in stone seen through water; the light that reflects when you move your eyes

These are things to remember 

Because these times are different 

Very few in fact deserve you

As always, give kindness freely

But do not give away your kind as freely 

You are precious 

Untitled

Hearts beat
For as long as they want

Hearts belong
To no one but themselves

New

The paper golden hats lay down
on the moist and stained old floor
the noise makers and buzzer whistles
have been discarded 'neath the tables
the street girls are at the bar
waiting
waiting for the good boys to give up
and find a value to the object
the band has been gone for hours
the cocktail waitresses
are staggering and tired
grinding out some rent money
the frat boys have lost the bets all night
so they keep plugging at the tables
in desperation
the girls, in their thigh high little dresses,
are wobbling through the casino
their makeup has melded with sweat
turning the canvas of their faces
into a melted wax portrait type of feel
the dealers are yawning
the pit bosses sigh
as the house counts the take
and rings in the new day
with a parade of security personnel
marching through the room
like a lethargic uniformed army
walking heavy upon a conquered land