Finally

As I ran my fingers up and down the smooth skin of your back, a faint trail of goose bumps appeared in their wake. This gave me the sudden and intense conviction that far from just causing reactions on your body, my fingers were, through some inexplicable, mystical, sexual power, creating these goose bumps within myself and applying them to your body. Yes, I was doing this through mere contact! Somewhat like a rhinestone gun, perhaps?

I’m sure that analogy was quite useless, as no one really uses or owns rhinestone guns anymore. Or do they? That’s a good question, but really has nothing to do with what I’m trying to accomplish here.

What I am trying to say here, is that I love you, plain and simple. ‘I love you’, ah, I know, it’s so conventional! I did my best to think of an un-cliched way to say it,because as a writer, I have been taught to avoid clichés like the plague (sorry, I couldn’t resist that one). However, I have come to discover that the unfortunate thing about clichés is that they often perfectly describe a situation. That is how they become clichés in the first place, I would assume; their situational and emotional accuracy causing a boom in conversational popularity that results in eventual disdain. But, I love you. When you kiss me, touch me, look at me, I feel it screaming out from every molecule in my body. I love love love love love LOVE you!

There really is no other way of saying it.

- Shellie Lobis

Twist

A flick of your wrist

A birdcall

And I

I

Am right there
Next to you

Head angled

Resting
Our legs and shoulders sealed tightly together

Grasped hands
And suddenly

Soaring

- Shellie Lobis

Glow

Ah ha! I have finally made a decision!
I am going to recite Ron Padgett’s Glow
And that monumental piece of decision-making
Fills me with an inexplicable euphoria
That motivates me to skip throughout the house
And sweep up the cat into my arms,
holding her face up to mine
As I scratch her belly
Because no one else is home and someone else must feel my joy
(Even though I am allergic to cats and will surely regret this decision
when I am violently sneezing later)
But she immediately starts purring, so
It appears my plan has worked.

Is this poem pointless?
Possibly.
But I must be vague, you see.

Okay, I have to be honest
The joy I feel as I waltz cat-happy throughout the living room
Is not solely from the clarity of decision-making or a
Bounce-off poetic ecstasy

Obvious, yes!
Particularly since I am sure you already know,
Or, I hope you do

Let’s just say I understand what Ron Padgett meant
By implode.

- Shellie Lobis

11:56

I sit in silence, legs crossed
Lightly bouncing my left leg up and down
At a rate of approximately two beats per second
Not out of nervousness,
But out of an inborn habit
That admittedly may be enhanced
By excess consumption of caffeine
But more so serves to be an act of stability
Somehow comforting me with the soft thud thud thud
Of repetition
And this glass of water
Which has been sitting on my windowsill,
Carefully aging for the past few days,
Also comforts me
The taste is not unpleasant,
Yet undeniably peppered with the faintest taste of dust
Which for some reason reminds me of the smell of a closet
Full of freshly washed towels
Which happens to be my favorite smell
And I don’t think I’ve ever told you that,
But now you know, and
That makes me want to see you, and ask
What your favorite smell is
And other similarly absurd questions

You do not have to drink dusty water with me while I do so,
But I will save some if you so desire.

- Shellie Lobis

Click

From the outside, it must have seemed peculiar
The two of us, lounging around the retention pond,
Watching the mosquitoes spiral dizzily through the night air
Which sounds delightful and visually, it was,
But those bugs attacked my feet with a vengeance
And most likely, yours as well
But there we were
I, grasping my icy glass in my black-gloved hands
Not elegant elbow-length silk gloves
But rather fuzzy knit ones
Not as classy as silk, perhaps,
But I am certain they were the softest gloves anyone has ever bought on clearance
Your hands were not gloved, but were occupied, rather
With turning over my book in your hands
As you studied it carefully
The both of us beginning to smile
As we admitted, strangely,
How much we enjoyed the shape of it
Both of us deriving satisfaction from the atypical formatting,
It being longer than usual,
And the unique way in which the cover folds over
and becomes its own book jacket
Is somehow pleasing to us both,
What made it stranger, perhaps,
Was how instantaneously and marvelously normal
it was to us.

- Shellie Lobis

Insomnia

My pillow has a heartbeat
Each rhythmic pulse that sounds
Through the layers of cotton
Ticking away the hours
Spent lying in my bed

I feel my eyes close
And my mind tear apart
Troubled it seems
By the heavy burden of consciousness

Inside of my eyelids I see shadows move
Mere wisps of figures and voices

Memories played out like movies
Projected against a shaky wall

- Shellie Lobis

The Surgeon

I can feel your eyes dissect me
Each shard of icy blue
Slicing its way through my skin
So your arrogant fingers
Can play with the veins and organs beneath

- Shellie Lobis

unicorn geometry

i went to bed last night with unicorns over my eyes
this of course is not a metaphor
but simply a description of the sleeping eye mask I got for my birthday
which was meant to be a joke but I wear anyway
because I do not have curtains and my room seems to get brighter
than it does outdoors
which wakes me up far too early

but the strings pinch the thin skin behind my ears
which keeps me awake regardless
and i am forced to contemplate how
i am not really in a triangle
i am in a V
because i am connected to both
and each one goes back to me
but neither one is linked to each other
so a triangle just wont do
this situation does not warrant that many angles

what kind of person contemplates geometry at 4:20 am?
someone with insomnia
and far too much on their mind
(also, they’ve had a few beers too many)

well
maybe tomorrow i will make a call
we will just share another pitcher or two
and talk
and there is nothing wrong with that.

- Shellie Lobis

Untitled

it is 3:45 am and my brain won’t stop talking to me
each question (it’s never an answer) bouncing around my head
and pouring out my ears
so i put on my earphones
and turn on some music in the hopes that somehow
the lyrics will shove those questions back inside my head
and bury them deep inside of my brain

but oh!

without my ear drums as an easy portal of exit
the questions come streaming of every other inch of by body
the words coming rushing out of my eyes
nose
throat
syllables and letters squeezing their way out of every pore
till my room is filled
and they are ricocheting off the walls
their trails leaving behind a tangle of spider webs
from corner to corner
that block the door
and seal the windows

it would seem
there will be no ignoring this

- Shellie Lobis

1

It was your mouth that did it
The way your lips hit each other
Before framing themselves into a smile
Setting off sparks
Like a rock striking against a flint
That ignited my heart
Freeing the dozens of flaming snakes
That burst out of my chest
And slithered joyfully around the room
Singeing my bed sheets

And I know that sounds terrifying
But if you had been there
You would have seen
How there was no sight more beautiful
Than the way those snakes glowed

And I for one would gladly throw away my candlesticks
And put them on my table

- Shellie Lobis