Nicole M. Martin

when the world is darker than death
the sun extinguished
and the ashen seas undulating endlessly
...

Headache Backache Heartache
Too Hot With Windows Open
Too Cold With Air Conditioning
I Keep Trying to Unlock
...

F*ck me ‘til I’m dry
Take everything there is
I’m wrung out
And strung out,
...

I went to the dark place
And held my red heart
In my own two hands
There, even your absence
...

I want to dance a liquid measure
A warm viscous tune
And float in a Latin sunset
Just you and me
...

The night opens.
In black we are ripped wide and the truth
Bleeds from us.
That feared magnet pulls us desperately,
...

You sigh in sleep
As the sheets rustle with the
Rise and fall of your breath.
I wish I could breathe that same breath,
...

There is the way you look at me,
Then how I look at you.
Though maybe ‘look’ is the wrong word—
I drink you, I devour you.
...

Nothing censors
no fog, no cigarette smoke
no blanket, no blinder
and still it goes
...

Hanging from the tree in her backyard
We’re too old for this, we know

We know
...

The apartment building across
The street is a different color
When it rains
You wear a hood over your hair
...

Sits on my chest,
Weight like a
Thousand corpses
And the rain drops
...