Author Archives: Benjamin Grossman

Numb

I hold you too close
In my heart
Pressed firm
Against the walls

But these chambers weren’t
Meant to hold this much love
To pump this much you

I’m afraid I’ll turn
Blue if you ever go
Afraid I no longer know
How to take a breath on my own

In hopes to forget
What might come
I took a shot of novocaine
To numb the future pain

But I still feel you too much
In my heart
Pressed firm
Against the walls

I’m afraid I no longer know
How to take a breath on my own
Afraid I’ll turn
Blue if you ever go

Simple Lovemaking Directions

1. Slowly … melt the pole of the Frozen North.

2. Travel and/or dock along the borders, consisting of

the West Coast and the Eastern Seaboard.

3. Move inland, flooding the Deep South.

4. Abandon or go down with the ship.

5. Drown, even, if you must. Or …

6. Float safely skyward toward the heavens.

Nonexistent

You remind me of nowhere that exists
A masterpiece no painter could ever paint
An opus no composer could ever create
A dream that could never be dreamt
A planet in a galaxy far, far away
Never to be discovered by a mortal

Little Gifts

On Christmas Eve my father gave me bruises as a little gift. He dragged me down the stairs by my long hair and beat me under the tree’s lights.

“You think Jesus never got a whipping for doing something bad?” he yelled.

He wasn’t drunk and he wasn’t out of his mind either. My father just beat me because he was mean. I didn’t even know what I had done wrong.

“You’re a leech,” he told me. “A leech.”

I wasn’t even sure what a leech was but that night I looked it up in the dictionary.

On Christmas morning my father woke up with my teeth in his arm. That was my little gift.

“What are you doing?” he yelled.

“Being a leech,” I said. “I’m a leech.”

My father didn’t call me a leech no more after that but he did knock out my front teeth. They were just baby teeth, though. I didn’t need them anyway.

I Cannot Love (Song Lyrics)

I’m in love
I’m in love
With this girl
I cannot love

She’s the one
She’s the one
She’s my one
And only sun

When she comes
When she comes
It’s like re-falling in love

I’m so done
I’m so dumb
I can’t walk or stand or run

I’m in love
I’m in love
With this girl
I cannot love

She’s the sound
She’s the sound
If there’s none
She’s not around

I’m in love
I’m in love
With this girl
I cannot love

She’s the sound
She’s my sound
I swear she’s
The sound of love

I think she’s
The sound of love

I know she’s
The sound of love