Miranda Morris

Highway Lovers

You left us lying there draped across the highway

Porcupine love letters 

Quills shoved into arteries 

Lies shooting forth in blood like geysers

Where are your magic tricks?

We dance on the tightrope 

Rope tight 

We are lovers        We were lovers

You left us lying there draped across the highway

Be still        the night is calling.         Crying

Trying       to rebuild bones from sand

The castle crumbled

Rain fell in sheets

Deserts drank their fill        overflowing

Flash flood      Santa Ana 

Oasis               Mirage

Draped across     the highway

Left us lying there 

Lovers.

Kept on the highest shelf

Rode bicycles sideways down alleys 

Ringing bells while cards slipped from spokes 

Make-believe was only beautiful in my imagination 

Ran backward through wildflowers 

Watching stars dance with lightening bugs 

Fell into bliss 

Rivers of cinnamon milk and honey 

Captured by heartstrings 

Strummed

Guitar strings strung

Drums beat with hands bare

Feet move slow in water heavy

Encircled and entranced

Estranged yet entangled

Why does forever feel so far away

So close I can almost touch

Standing on tiptoes 

The cookie jar shattered

The Top Drawer of my Dresser/Thoughts

I watch a cockroach crawl across the lace on the bottom of my bra

The part where your fingers soft trailed slowly, I struggle to hold tears back

Unsure 

Am I crying because of you or the roaches?

Possibly it is that I can write comparisons 

How you both touch my intimate thoughts/things.

Touch me while I sleep 

That bring tears

You are gone

The cockroach remains

Your caress no longer covers his

My relationship with the roach more intimate than the one I share with you.

Tuesday Morning

Blowing Bubbles Tuesday morning in the bathroom before brushing my teeth, standing here in only dark purple underwear, the elastic sags. Staring in the mirror, I journey through the small tear near the elastic on top, my vision a thread pulling the fraying fabrics of life nearer to the faux marble countertop. Spitting, I watch surrender swirl down the sink into oblivion—Salt n Peppa blasts out of the speakers. The alarm went off at 6 am, and I rolled out of bed like every morning. Is the shaking of the walls, floor, and ceiling from the bass reverberating, or are my neighbors upset? Everything looks small up here from the back of the toilet/top of the balcony: limitless. Directing streams of paper boats/boys, dolls/dreams, I turn up the orchestra. There is no way out of the shower curtain, no way to untangle pigtails, and the smell of spam. No way to remove roots navigating through eye sockets. No way to throw dirt off a body that’s never been found.

Author Bio

Miranda is an avid writer, reader, and daydreamer,  still making wishes on stars and talking to the man on the moon. She has four children who teach her as much as she teaches them. She loves spending quality time with them and having new adventures together as a family.