FEATHERS FROM A GOODWILL STORE

I’ve stripped away the gritty streets, the whiskey bottle, the fedora-shadowed heel,
and let the encounter dissolve into something tender, vulnerable, boundless.

The dame of fire becomes a quiet, opening miracle—soul no longer a broad name,
but the deepest secret blooming. The smoke and devouring darkness soften into petals,
rain, stars held apart by wonder.

The voice is lowercase-i, parentheses nesting like hearts within hearts, punctuation
scattered like raindrops or breaths, lines tumbling freely, joyfully broken yet whole.

No more hard-boiled surrender; instead, a glad, trembling yes to fragility that devours
only to make more alive; somewhere i have never walked(so gladly)beyond
any wet street or heel’s tired echo

your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

just a joe(i was)smoking life
down to the filter of alone
believing whiskey could steady the shake
until you cut through the ice-fog

a broad dame of fire? no
soul opens petal by petal
myself as Spring opens(touching skilfully,mysteriously)
her first rose

and in that instant i swore
i’d torch every shanty dive
just for the curve
of your smile—
horns wail low(serenading Melancholy)
but longing is broader than hips
a grin sharp enough
to kill weaker souls?

no

it uncloses me
easily
no longer do my heels whisper-walk alone
noir lights bleed?

they bloom
smoky kisses swallow?
they sing
dark fruit of secret love
devours

and i let it(i let it gladly)
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life
which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder
that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your soul(i carry it in
my soul)

:: 01.19.2026 ::I’ve stripped away the gritty streets, the whiskey bottle, the fedora-shadowed heel,
and let the encounter dissolve into something tender, vulnerable, boundless.

The dame of fire becomes a quiet, opening miracle—soul no longer a broad name,
but the deepest secret blooming. The smoke and devouring darkness soften into petals,
rain, stars held apart by wonder.

The voice is lowercase-i, parentheses nesting like hearts within hearts, punctuation
scattered like raindrops or breaths, lines tumbling freely, joyfully broken yet whole.

No more hard-boiled surrender; instead, a glad, trembling yes to fragility that devours
only to make more alive; somewhere i have never walked(so gladly)beyond
any wet street or heel’s tired echo

your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

just a joe(i was)smoking life
down to the filter of alone
believing whiskey could steady the shake
until you cut through the ice-fog

a broad dame of fire? no
soul opens petal by petal
myself as Spring opens(touching skilfully,mysteriously)
her first rose

and in that instant i swore
i’d torch every shanty dive
just for the curve
of your smile—
horns wail low(serenading Melancholy)
but longing is broader than hips
a grin sharp enough
to kill weaker souls?

no

it uncloses me
easily
no longer do my heels whisper-walk alone
noir lights bleed?

they bloom
smoky kisses swallow?
they sing
dark fruit of secret love
devours

and i let it(i let it gladly)
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life
which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder
that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your soul(i carry it in
my soul)

:: 01.19.2026 ::