Honeybee

The most hollow definition of beautiful is one

you clearly aren’t a fan of, and I can understand that.

Shoved in the skin of a person you aren’t and then cat-called

is not something I’d be comfortable with either.

But I desperately want to call it you because

to me it means the quality of a

soul who

emits light, who greets baristas like they’re old friends

and kisses me a thousand shining times

when I’m face down from

singing embarrassment.

The recognized definition is as follows:

the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense

pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising

from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.)

or something else (as in a personality in which a

high spiritual quality is manifest)

And that sounds pretty applicable to me.

I have always been a fan of

the dictionary

But you are b e a u t i f u l

because there’s nobody in the world that lights me up like you do

(I mean, I’m writing

POETRY and I don’t think you understand)

and I just feel like that deserves a few compliments and

it is, after all, one of my very favorite words

so forgive me, please.

Another, favorite word, that is,

is one you don’t hear

too often where we live up here in

Yankee country but even so

honeybee

sounds like golden summer days and you to me

so how could I resist running my tongue all over it?

And when bees keep buzzing in all the radio songs

like my damn windmills and foxes it’d be wrong to

ignore this just like I feel that it’s wrong for my mind

to take a breath in between thoughts of you.

I find myself

racing my words across this apartment

to this page because they drip like water but don’t taste

quite as good as the sweat on your shoulder

so sometimes I forget them for a moment in memory’s favor.

Poetry’s not something I do so well but

disclaimers aside my mind insists on dwelling in

the sound of your laugh and the size of your hands and

the few times you’ve sounded scared of me,

and I assure you there’s no need to be, not when I’m

the one who’s surely

further gone.