Our wish to travel the buildings,
Old of pavement,
New of blood,
Comes to boil, only after salting,
We orbit brick bastions,
Pylons of wood and glass,
Who rise to soak in the heat of
Summer.
And resist the blister of
Winter.
Tires, footsteps, leave a city,
To take their time in trip,
They ask us, “When can we talk…
…with a face?”
To make a clearer connection.
Walls of ever stretching spired glass dissolve,
To wander outside the blind clutch,
The relentless resolve of those,
Those uptown clowns,
Our wish fades now, my unborn daughter’s
Sun-bleached blanket waves in the breeze
The thick, accented purr of
Motors, will surely lull her to sleep,
After a trawl beyond the city we knew.
On a Lovely Day, The Zoo Suffers
Dropping angry red tears
The sun peeks, from clouded sky,
Shy, testing the patience of
The world, we knew and loved
Strike not a woman but a mailbox,
quite fast,
A torn hand not for striking steel,
But from gripping the wheel of the
past
Just to eat can do so wrong
The neighbors will see, but we do
not,
Instead, we just struggle here
Wrestling, for lack of fear
Did I win? I cannot tell,
She leaves with the pace of the wind
Cool faced, trembling hands,
Please, all of this I can’t stand,
Yes, I know that I am rage
Sun is so very warm
But she
Does not go home.
Her choice is a mystery
My acceptance, too easy
She stole me from me, a lot of
things
And the warlord within
Remembers them.
Her eyes are soft with sorrow
The sunset soft with pride
I ramble a broken chorus
She laughs inside her mind
And tells me, this, she’s heard
before,
But the breeze tells her anew,
And that she knows what she must do
And so she remains true,
But why do you talk this way?
Of things we don’t understand?
Around us day grows older
And we heed its gentle warning
But something in us has changed
Something, dark and cold
But who am I to say, if we have
gotten old
I worry for who I became that day
A man I do not know
A strange and angry child,
Lost inside a store
I hope he finds peace some day
And that she, does too,
Perhaps I once loved her,
Perhaps she even knew
And that is how I know for sure
That we are dead and gone
A silence hangs
Before us
And we sing a sad old song
Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
I remember things I shouldn’t,
Dates of Byzantine decay,
All the Lies I’ve told.
The stink of Kerosene,
On a thieves’ breath.
I remember days I was never present
for,
Countless weeks spent thoughtless,
Binges,
Masked with the morality of
mundanity,
I remember the glitter of the chandelier
And tilting my head side-to-side
To see the entire Rainbow.
Who knew I would find myself here?
You did
But I could not even foresee
Your tomorrow
A scam, we played, with nicotine
patches,
To trick the eyes of our masters
(or perhaps just yours)
Our reward, only time and,
A little pocket money
Never come back here, blood,
This place is twisted and dull
An airport of dust
Corny magazines, dead friends,
Never would I threaten you
Only beseech you, leave
And never return
Fly safe to elsewhere
Anywhere
Warmer or colder
Go, brother,
Go, winter bird,
Go.
Who Goes To Breed
Well swap my blood for something better,
Formalin, Formaldehyde, sulfates of
morphine or even butter
Over-prescribed to feel like we aren't
dying,
But can I ask the expert panel,
How long can I expect to survive?
Symptoms included a sour taste in my throat
And a smell worth scrutiny,
Stuck to my coat
Which one is barely alive, a hundred facts
And one’s a lie
A whistling on the horizon,
Signals the darkening skies.
A rhyme to die by
A pill to live by
Tiny mouth-missile, but
The panel promises us
“Feel like you can fly”
Passive eyes with tiny holes
Fall asleep on their way to the
drugstore
Strike me with a sack of pennies
Who hasn’t prayed for a little
copper before
Coinstar, Kroger, next to the
Denny’s
A desperate grab at the store
To hold close that ultimate,
bloodsucking
Whore
Barely alive, we hide our blisters,
Welts, holes picked opened,
So what happens when man and
substance
Collide
And by your friend’s accounts you
really should have
Died
