Routine..... Poem by Minnie Gehrig

like feet finding the same steps,
dawn opens up
while the alarm clock rudely chimes,
n we get up
like a married couple,

routine finds no room
for wild abandonment,
i make the bed n
find my way to the kitchen,
n wash your dishes
wondering where love has taken me,

the phoenix
is building her nest,
she is preparing to lay the egg
of her rebirth
she is preparing our death..

because i know not the love of routine...
it kills slow,

almost breathless against the pillow,
your apologetic eyes,
the way we move slowly around each other n offer no apologies...

this is the first sunrise of our love
n winter..
we do not give into each other
instead mechanical our wheels spin,
n we become the seconds
of days ticking away in boredom

my lips are dull knives across
your cheeks,
n my heart is a dying engine,

n my skin wants fast fingers,
n hungry eyes
aching for something lost
between the sheets of routine.....
where mirages of our first days play out
a movie screen of dreams
im afraid to live without......