blue balloons floating huddled in the early morning dumpster arcade carpet print tissue paper we sing happy birthday to the flies

fingerprint bruises prettier than precious stones twined about my throat,

ragged desert fringe; failed explorers trudging back sunscorched, sandstorm-scathed

mistshrouded mourners corpse-sallow in somber black fall closer, closer

dead-drop envelope; words eclipsed by mildewstains decompose, unread

longlost loveletter; kiss-sealed airmail envelope, return to sender

sweatslick skin-on-skin rivulets run feverhot; saltdrenched panting squirm

hair falling into the sink third time this year my bones still ache the living room couch is still empty the house fire still not reported

her hands and tongue searching out boy pearls and strange gospels

milk overflowing your coffee cup hands shaking as you listen to the morning news

your skin has particular grooves and bumps and landmarks and textures even blind, i still know you by feel you started used lotion in secret because that skin, that thing i knew, made you feel gross and my hands these days are lost dogs looking for their backyards hoping to catch kinetic scent

fungal filament ripping wet soil apart exploding soundlessly

"fucking cunt," lips parted "again, angrier"

the smell of skin touched skin i know who you've been with, but I'm just happy you're feeling better

spread mess paint on floor a now visible depth

your eyes ochre light sepia nostalgia

ice cream and lime and ginger on the tongue unseasonal tapeworms your teeth are crowded in your mouth around last year's new year

down to the last droplet of an atom of the ground up star matter your body comes alive your spirit, your cells, your spinal cord comes alive deliver us from shaking hands dead winter leaves and doubt with muscles tight we jump from this ledge into the air atmosphere nebula or the eyes of another

first class incision empty soda bottles cardboard sign: HOEMLESS (sic) and a wandering dog (sick) a fever that can't be repeated and a hill too early died on

petal spreader wing eater hubris caller

wrap the veil around his drunken, deadpan clothing to make a wedding dress - glamorous, beautiful, ill-fitting for the wedding he dreams about fitfully under the gibbous moon

your arm holding the same open wound that mine had three years ago and now marked by a sharp scar is no mistake even if you say it's coincidence

masks, instruments slow motion falling apart

bruises on your neck in the shape of the grip around your arms the collar looks better against a backdrop of blistered purple

lexicons burned maps stolen orbit lost

choking up chrysalis mutations growth i love how you let me change you

sand's edge high sun razor winds

pause to decipher drunken linear b scrawl, grubby tiles profaned

o radiancegulper o illiquid font; veilgestated

in the openings and highways of brick you leave me loveletters, hidden, to be eaten by the paperbugs and delivered to the dead

pukesour aftertaste; regurgitated phrases drying on the page

black shroud (lace) pulled tight (rain) funeral kiss (me)

do you hold coagulated wings in coughing flesh tongue of pearl, shuddering gobbetcaul, figured in tensed locks, singing or are you unstrung, dangling claws against wax skinmound feather and hair from high spines,

a letter a grapefruit a throat then sunrise

dusk the mute hour between us ~ Lisa Alletson, @lisaalletson.bsky.social / lisaalletson.com // #Photography: ‘Misty Church’ by Piotr Skrzypiec / piotr-skrzypiec.pixels.com #vss365 #haiku

the prompt is "elytra" i frantically check my phone for the definition while hurrying to the car

broken jewelry stones removed: we knew the thief

locked eyes matching breath - lunchbreak ends

oh the words i could write about the bruises i gave and the bruises i will give and the bruises you beg me for instead i will let your body explain yourself

backwash hot humid sticky gross air and the way your skin sequins

the wear on the wood matching your grip on my waist matching the frailty of your palm matching the twist in the sheets and the sound at the door

out of breath early morning escaping birthdays

the way the popcorn ceiling peels purposeful wounds reminds me how you always meant to fix everything around here

fence, separating fingers, together kiss, undelivered

frayed flannel thread from the back of the closet cut with scissors from the same box

the bat bites, blind and mewling - i offer my wrist

tree branches twisted, resembling how you slept

it clips its wings not to deter freedom; edging, instead, the inevitable flight

cold rain hot tongues autumn front porch equilibrium