my careless contagion

Ah, summer. I used to know a girl named Summer, but this isn't about her. This is about the season (though if summer had a gender, it would be female). Where I live, summer does not last long. My joke is that it ended July 4, and then begins the slide toward fall, my favorite season. Basically, it lasts about six weeks, but no calendar will tell you that. Still, summer has such lovely qualities, and this summer has been especially long and summery. Here in the Black Hills, summer is tourist season, but even those who live here can celebrate its specialness. People come here to recreate in a place that isn't so scorchingly hot. It's true. Many homes here don't even have air conditioning because it cools off enough at night they can simply open their windows for cool sleeping and then close them again in the morning to keep their homes cool during the day. (Naturally, I am the exception to the rule because I have a small air conditioner for my tiny apartment, mainly be...

I'm struggling to hold back tears on this winding trail in the shadow of the devil, the monolith that blocks out the sun Surrounded by strangers and even stranger feelings makes me wonder where you are and are you thinking about me too? My heart wants to run to you but it rages in my chest like a prisoner can I quiet my endless thoughts about you? can I put away my burning hands that just want to feel you? can I make tomorrow something better than today, make you speak the words I want you to say? There is hope in my head but fear in my heart will it feel this way forever? will you always riot in my brain wake me in the night stop me dead in my tracks when I long for you? Will I always bleed like this when no one is looking shove my guts back inside mop the bloody floor so no one knows how bad I'm hurting? How can I keep coming back to this precipice of pain? because I found you -- or someone like you -- here she isn't...

I was a golden boy blessed in so  many ways but now I see the end of all those blessings I was something, for sure but now I'm something else fastened to this hateful world like a junkyard dog to his chain Let me go on The sunshine I basked in was so full of promise the night was my terror and those nights were so long How many dreams have chased my soul how many years were lost below how did I not die a thousand times? Golden boy your day is done but you've a new golden boy to see running into that same sun.