Not All Darkness is Terrifying

It wasn't until we kissed
when the inner most part of your bottom lip
started to kiss me back
and it felt brand new--after kissing you thirty times a day
two hundred and ten times a week
minus a few months here and there

it was our brand new kiss tonight
that made me realize
not all darkness is terrifying

Mixed with the fact that my brain,
racing, trying to flee the scene to collect my pulse
i stepped shin deep in a rain puddle
and stood there thinking,

"This is what I do now.
I step in the world's largest rain puddle,
and I stay silent. Because there is a warm
kiss on my forehead, just below my hairline
telling me it's okay to be silent sometimes."

Already Dark Room

Yes--there is something I remember
about family.

Overhead lights burn out and lightbulbs
are not replaced for months.
The one who lives in this room rallies
her army of little lamps;
four, five of them to create a glow
big enough to justify
the loss of an overhead light.
It's almost indecipherably different, except...

Still, months later--
upon entering the room, the switch is flipped up
upon exiting the room, the switch is flipped down.

Because we can still touch our beating hearts,
we continue to dream of our family's ghosts;
dress our dinner tables for six memories
and pretend it's a celebration;

after dinner,
the obviously empty plates are too painful,
the haunting has vanished--but if you look,
I'm still in the doorway.