Drunken heart,
Stagger to the center
And spin within my ribcage
Where love’s been locked

Bound within old corset-bones
This narrow-wasted hourglass
Cinches swell to sand

Unmoored by you,
With drench and wet and whistle
I watch for stars between the bars of my breath!

A message in the bottle spills
Slurring all the love songs and
Blurring all the lines

Loosened, slippery, reckless
The chest is spilling all the goods, now
and sloshing over sides

All that’s buried all that’s sunken
Chained and roped and left behind
Now hiccups toward the shine

With the swivel of the fearless
And the salted edge of flesh
All the garnish is sublime

Numb now, the fall is fine
Plummet toward the night befogged
Softened, deepened, done.

Sobering thought,
Dragged from the horizon —
With cliff and crash and crested sea,
Love wrecks the
Careless heart.