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Dancing in the Eddies

Lilac

Dancing in the
Eddies

Poetry Book

Dancing in the Eddies is an experimental, auto-biographical, pre-apocalyptic fever dream exploring the complexity and mundanity of life. In thirty-four parts, this book examines birth, death, love, loss, and the dangerous work of becoming in the wake of dismantled dreams.

birth is nothing, if not an ordering of chaos.

i, for one, am being birthed a million times

before the earth orbits the sun. a million more

before another candle, yet again, gets caked in sugar

& always pushed by something other than myself.

here, i am willed through the birth canal of a history

still unwritten, at least in part. there are too many

wars left unwaged, too many guns spilling

from my mouth, to call me finished.

in greek mythology, chaos was the first.

before the gods there was mayhem,

maelstrom in the sea. in the beginning,

divinity floated over waters,

spoke & shaped the void,

called it good & it was good.

god spoke & man shed his gills.

god spoke & man flung himself onto

dry ground. god spoke & there was oklahoma.

god spoke & there i was, a baby boy

born in tulsa, lungs waterlogged & breathing,

the doctor flinging out his net to catch something from the sea.

here, god spoke & calmed the chaos, or so the bible says.

i walk into a prison chapel & the man

in front of me, unprompted, knows my name,

recognizes my voice, says he listens every saturday, 9 am,

sharp as the spear a roman soldier plunges through his side.

every crack in your voice, he says, is a beacon in the night,

particularly on mornings the sun forgets to rise & a school

of catfish shed their opposable thumbs.

de-evolution is alive & well, buried in the prison’s catacombs.

the truth is: i am not a lighthouse.

i too am searching for the same god he is,

salvation is a shooting star strung across the nighttime sky,

a string of christmas lights, each bulb announcing a new birth.

Dear God, Dear Me

ORIGINS: Roads
That Led Me Here

Spoken Word Album

ORIGINS: Roads That Led Me Here—a spoken word album blending poetry, music, and soundscape—is my first attempt. After months of false starts, these are the pieces that remained. Together, they form a self-portrait.

ORIGINS

Lilac

Poetry Chapbook

Lilac is a chapbook that explores the arc of a relationship from beginning to end, delving into themes of love, loss, and the complexities of human connection. Through vivid and evocative language, the work examines the emotional landscape of intimacy.

Weighted Blanket

and it ended in a kiss; and it ended in embrace;

and it ended in desire; and it ended in despair;

and it ended with the best intentions;

and it ended with a gunfire chest;

and it ended in loss;

and it ended with all that might have been;

and it ended in hope for all that might become;

and it ended with a promise:

you deserve the whole world we said,

and meant it, even if the world isn’t me.

I Pray Wolves Will

on the day i die,

may wolves unravel my body,

tear my limbs asunder

and scatter me like seed,

may my feet be drug through streets,

as comrades lead the way,

may my hands be

left in mounds of dirt,

compost heaps of

orange peel and tea leaves.

my heart—i pray—they’ll tear to pieces,

dropped on the doorsteps of everyone i loved,

i’ve made a list in my head,

hope it is incomplete.

life is long, if we’re lucky.

radicals. farmers. poets. prophets.

pieces of me returned to their rightful owner.

when they make it to your door,

and they will, know a part of me loved you,

now, and even until the end.

Dear God, Dear Me

Spoken Word Album

Dear God, Dear Me began as a two-column page in American Typewriter font, but the poem soon outgrew its container, spilling beyond the limits of the typeface. Now, it lives as a spoken word album, layered with music and soundscapes that give voice to its evolution.

What started as a series of questions unfolded into answers, helping me navigate years of a faith thrown into crisis.

In the Works

Fireweed & Flint

Poetry Book

Fireweed & Flint is a collection of poems born from a world on fire. In an age of upheaval—where empires crumble, movements rise, and the ashes of the old give way to what comes next—these poems ignite with resilience, rebellion, and rebirth. Like fireweed, which blooms defiantly in scorched earth, and flint, which sparks against steel, this collection is a testament to endurance, resistance, and the beauty found in struggle. Rooted in the American South and forged in the fight against oppression, Fireweed & Flint is both a call to action and an elegy for what’s been lost. In the smoldering remains of empire, these poems insist: we will bloom, and we will burn bright.

The Right Conditions

If I have anything to do about it,

our descendants will never know a jail or cop.

Kudzu will overtake the cruisers while the carburetors rust.

One day, prison will be a memory relegated to the old folk.

Today, I stare into the mirror. Return to work.

This salt and pepper beard will not be multi-toned forever.

And yet. Hope is urgent. Relentless. Unyielding.
Did you know that under the right conditions

concrete can decompose in 50 years?

Last Night

Last night there were no cops,

only overgrown cruisers taken by the kudzu

and generations of a hard-won war.

Last night, sirens were reclaimed,

played on turn tables,

and the people danced to this strange music,

knowing there were no guns

at the note's untimely end.

Last night, every wall had long been scaled.
Every door unlocked. Every stone unturned.

And every bar burned beneath the welder's

final act of creation—a jungle gym
where children played under clear skies.

Last night, the people ate at a table
they built with their own hands.

And then I woke, only to conspire again,

and again, and again.