confederate tape hiss,
the bitter renaming of old things.
like a half-sized new york jewish
union man, the moral ad executive
who has a problem with the word
“fructose” and so it does not
find its way into fast food advertisements,
these things are monumentally unfair.
and just like we give up the history
that was written down, and then obscured
with union blood and [...]
i spun elliott smith for far too fucking long
until i fell asleep crying on the edge of the bed
and half of my body was slipping off of it.
later i woke up when i hit the ground. it was
from a dream about planets, and about me,
and about how much i would like to see great
things before [...]
birds have tiny hearts beating in their chests, and they need
to flit and fly on specialized wings, fueled with seed.
they scrounge and scavenge for lumber for nests,
and smartly they live on the wind, on the crests.
they can live and raise babies in the boughs of a tree
and they are not stupid, not ugly, like
i’d barely, hardly
i wouldn’t even touch
if you gave me one inch of ground in this trench battle like world war one
i’d take it
and with full force hold on to it with my crooked teeth, like a wolf over prey
you would have to crush my skull to collect it
you would have to put a bullet through [...]
for my mother, he was the late-night doorbell.
her mother’s bare feet in the kitchen.
the frustrated phone call.
he was a ghost at twenty-eight.
the jungle was, what, a vacation?
and he was a tour guide?
party favors fucked him up,
made him low and even, and
he lived for them.
move on, minnesota, not here,
but california, where you live
and the nights are [...]
what is it about me? i had never
touched a single collection of
poetry before you made me do it,
just by loving it. but what does
that mean now? it’s just a book
on the shelf,
like me, i am packed away for
winter seasons, like a book,
i am stagnant and waiting to
be opened up by you, for
better or for worse, [...]
you cut your hair
in the marriott sink
with borrowed black scissors
during the war protest.
i stood at the window.
i looked at the crowd.
great black locks tumbled,
with angry desperate cries.
snip -
“my dead brother!”
snip -
“our three boys!”
snip -
“all those poor babies!”
and you’re finished.
and you’re walking through the door,
hair, short, like the prohibition.
the shreds of your hair,
now short, like our [...]
lets give it up for the old gods!
the dead ones, the dry ones,
the forgotten and cold ones!
they were loved!
they were taught!
and now they are gone!
oh kukulcan, where are your wings?
oh ma’at, your justice?
i will pray and pay
my tribute.
not out of fealty
do i do this,
but from heart’s solace;
i know what it is like
to be left behind.
memory,
bounty [...]
fresh from the flood waters came policy:
easy bread,
an uneasy gun shot boat trip sun burnt
lawlessness.
we got our film and took advantage of it.
oh, staring match! the ticker ran by and we
laughed a lot.
the city blinked first, and those drowned rat
refugees
took solace in our staring eyes; they wanted help.
i see you like i see a couple [...]
I get hung up on your voice,
sometimes, when you talk, and when your words
fall out of your lips, I can’t help but to imagine
myself hanging off of them. I don’t love you, but
I probably could, if you would do nothing
but speak.
When I speak,
my voice
splatters out of my mouth. It tumbles out into nothing.
I cannot be [...]
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