Escapril 26.1

15 flash love poems from this year's Sonja Ringo Prompts

This year I finally decided to do Escapril, and, like everything else, my hyperfixation on writing a love poem every day dwindled around the 8th.

So, still determined, I decided to share my first 15 poems from sonja ringo’s prompts here — in one place. I’ll do the same at the end of April.

It’s been a blast so far, though. This is my second month writing a poem — or something — every day for all its days. I have to say 1) I’m over it and 2) writer’s block isn’t real. That was a marketing thing.

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1. Night Vision

   A poem where I have night vision 
   
   and can see the iris of your eyes reach for a galaxy behind me 
   
   you hold more stars than 
   we have 
   
   pupils —
   the best way to be blown
   
   void-wide like that wormhole smile  
   
   i have all the distance 
   light travels            to get lost
   
   in your gaze  

2. Heliotrope

   my favorite trope
   is a heliotrope 
   
   as in →
   
   flick 
   your wrist 
   the rhythm 
   of my hand
   
   when 
   we are apart 
   too long leave 
   the flash on
   
   i’m coming 
   toward 
   the light

3. Object Permanence

   what is the line about a tree
   falling when no one is around
   to hear it?
   
   does it make a sound
   or does it ask the earth
   to love it harder
   
   i bet money on schrödinger —
   there is no thing as object 
   permanence
   
   still, i am falling— rarely is it
   a quiet thing. 

4. Labyrinth

   because my heart is a labyrinth 
   I have written instructions to the center: 
   
   recognize the dead-ends for what they are— 
   
   new doors              begin all over
   
   there is no clear path— these things rely on devotion
   
   You have to find the minotaur 
   This may seem like bad advice 
   but love is hardly worth easy
   
   It is the wild of a person that reveals them. 

5. Barefoot in the mud

i have always wanted 
to choreograph 
our first kiss
in a downpour 
of warm rain,
to dance barefoot
in the mud,
and wait 
as the first
rays of light
break through
grey, pure gold.
i can’t imagine it
another way. 
you know, 
they call it 
a monkey’s wedding?

6. Quantum Entanglement

is it quantum entanglement 
or are you just              in the mood
for a late-night      meteor shower?

no judgement          day, i’m weak
in the knees for a wink— wanna
treat that boy like            wishing 
stars           and i hear,     they fall
in tandem,       even,    light-years 

apart

what’s the harm, if we’re both
nuts?         as above,        so below
which means                   we blow
our best shot on              the sky

falling                             in love.       
co-star, today, says: i am    loved
differently in every universe.

let this one be      cosmopolitan
by that i mean,          after a few
it gets dangerous           to drive.

7. (Skipped, there’s an Ekphrastic Poem for this one that’ll post after part 2).

8. Effervescent

i love you to the moon &
(After chen chen)

not back, let’s stay behind,
watch Artemis II swing by
& sing karaoke
without our feet to the ground— 
you’ve swept me off them, regardless, 
i’m moonlighting 

as an astropoet,
writing sonnets
titled ‘luminescent’ 
they call this kind of thing
effervescent—
how i love you

the earth stops dead-spin
in awe— tell mission control
we’ve got no place like home
in each other’s arms 

9. Wrinkle in time

there is a wrinkle in time &

us
darling,
we’re growing
old & beautiful 
with love.

10. Swan song

& for my final poem

perhaps a swan            song
from the bottom of my heart,
the depth of a fury, retelling 
Orpheus                  the story 

of how love comes back 
                              all the time

to surprise us, even, at the end.

11. Moth dust (my fave)

when i come back 
to earth,
it’ll be 
as a sunset
moth.

I’ll find you
catching light.
I’ll sleep 
on your wall
at night.

and like I know you,
the blue lamp of summer
will lose to love.

the mosquitos will get you.
but I will too. 

12. Blue print

you are the blue
print    of good 
man

           i won't 
tell a soul 

i could not 
be more content 
to demolish 

the past

             i was 
& now am

always yours

13. don’t look over there

all i have 
is my modesty

thus i am sprawled 
nude
like a 
charcuterie 

take me
i am prepared 

pastrami 
thighs
and soft
camembert
lips

do not 
neglect 
me

14. secrets at the motel (least favorite, might come back to it)

i'll tell you two
lies and something else
to think about

i do not love you
nor will i ever 

mama was a biker 
with red hair and pink
leather— she said
love is dangerous 

like the stories
we don't tell, 

the secrets
we keep locked 
at the 51 motel

15. frivolous

this may seem frivolous but

tomorrow, buy me the bulk pack 
of stars from Makro 

i'm going to take the universe 
down— the light has dulled 

after all these years. i want to gaze
the open night with you,

& this, this won't do at all.