cigarettes in a
rainy alleyway
at your best
friend’s
wedding
political maneuvers
and beat poetry
from the heavens
I’m not the man
I used to be-
why don’t we
go back to
your place
in a while
first I need to
finish this up
noir the last dance
and mystery the exits
warm whiskey
my first love
a dark back room
of a wood paneled
reception hall
black suits
petrichor
and the smell
of lost love
after the rain
snake in armor
dirty, hidden in plain sight -
a sight not for sore eyes
bitter, embroiled,
too hard. weak from battle.
an old solider.
war lost long ago.
bayonet at the ready.
out of bullets.
out for death.
he’s already decided
neither of you
are leaving here
alive.
a purple feather
stuck in
the field
lashes braying
stuck out
like a sore thumb
and was the
only indication
that I was
ever there
over the brown
incandescent
salt flats
and rocky cliffs
where the wind has no name
and the gulls and the ravens
cast orders from on high
where the disappearing star
in the heavens
leaves chaos and nightmares
in its wake
where people hide
and memories are desecrated
and the history of a man
is lost into the
waves of the night
toaster deoxygenated
a barrel of discarded organs
made me perish in the
autumn wind
somnolence;
personalized sleeping pills
your namesake’s sleeping powder
blood drained, replaced with
sugar water
donut lunches
borrowed tape dispensers
there’s a guy at work
always stealing my mug
liquorice
liquor ice
liquor ice
bold guns
and orange juice
clapping flags
tide the stem of your ocean
the flow of january
ice roads and period clothes
and a license plate that
says
“born to drive”
born to derive
born to dive
and bound to die
he comes from a
very dark place
where the mold grows
on pillowcases
and blood pours out
of him during the night;
where blinds sway in
the gentle breeze of
february air
conditioned to expect
insufficient funs;
where he walks alone
and stalks the pretty girls
just by virtue of existence
I wasn’t trying to
creep you out;
I was just walking
back to my car
behind you
fire borne, dirt stewed
explosions from a vessel of
destruction painting the way
with fear and death
straight towards your heart
violent symbiosis of the self
retribution; transposed cliche
songs in the key of dreams
tonight’s performance
has been postponed indefinitely
all that separates
the good, the evil, and me
are words and our names
a girl laying in the dark
an endless chasm
where they left her
after she was sacrificed
all alone now
in her special place
she stared into the abyss
and the abyss ran and hid
the last hook, metal in the hands
bleeding into eternity
ignoring the world
as it ignores her
as it ignores all of us
until someone
feels sorry for her
gets too close
tries to help her
escape the labyrinth
and gets
drug into hell
a heart and two souls
bursting into flames
and so I stay here
all alone
waiting for your touch
to trap you with me forever
sometimes
I lie to angels
but I never
lie with them
hesitant condemnations
never really work out
gym membership wasted
on the saturday night fight
battle and hyphen
banana the skyline
with your tiny voices
that no will hear
even if the golden triangles
believed you existed
they would just laugh
your opinions away
so go ahead and try to
protest and vote
but it won’t do any good
because you can’t protest
corruption
and you can’t vote
nepotism and racism
out of office
all you can do is
revolutionize
and murder the sons of bitches
insanity is hard
but living with the nonsense
is harder
it’s easier to apologize
for killing their lord
than to ask for permission
