If she’s immortal
I’ll take the dive
If she’s human
I’ll take that too
I want to have now
this table
these drinks
the stale smoke in the air
I want to crawl
into the wall
rest against the low hum
of the air conditioner ducts
and eyeball her lips blind
till the debris
layers a permanent
metallic taste
on my lips
drawing deep breaths
until the roof caves in
So we leave
calling each [...]
Sit like a woman!
Cross your goddamned legs.
Don’t show nothing.
Sit still like a woman.
You didn’t fight for this:
The thick branches of independence,
A woman’s right to make 30% less,
Suffrage a hole to punch on a fucking ballot,
Diet commercials screaming on TV,
Almost-nothing sweeteners disappearing before your very eyes,
First woman President ALMOST makes it,
Lifetime TV movie telegraphs,
“Band Of Gold” [...]
It’s going down
I can feel the subtle loss of lift
Weight weighing on the shoulders
Spiral sent out in reverse
And I’m still out here on-the-line
A phone call away made faraway
Testing the efficacy of century-old copper wire
Trusting the miles to not kill off the line
Inside out, my guts hang out there on-the-line
The oh-honey-so tragic nature of a twice [...]
I fell deeply in love with you somewhere over Topeka, Kansas
On a cross-country flight shaky & timid, tossed around by
Pockets of air brazen & angry at us for taking up space
Falling asleep awake in the bland pattern-woven chairs with
Pressed down foam & padding from lazy businessmen leaning
Me dreaming of you when my eyes were shut
Believing [...]
Rocks glass fragmenting into stars & stars
Of light bending refracted around
The cool bottom pattern to grip, big tip
Filled & color shifting, blind clink
Reminds you of bars filled with thick hope
Last chance booze joints making money
On basement poker & shorting the drinks
And every drink is served in a glass flattened
With finger holds & fierce desire
To pour [...]
What you have inside of you must feel like black & dust
Temporary carrier of toes & fingernails forming in the red push
Feeding off your tissue, using your nutrition & making you swoon
Under the heavy air thick with pressure & dissent
Your family loosely hearing the echo of lost motherhood
You would have made such a terrible mother
If [...]
O Grandmother, protect us & your memory
Lay in the Earth & let every thought of you remind us where our center is
The day you passed away in a violent torrent of gasps & tears
Son pounding on your chest, daughter wishing away your last breath, hoping for another first
Grandson crying, not understanding what force takes your [...]
Promises become legendary, legends are driving metaphors
Down the constricted veins of a California freeway
Thick with the deposits of dreams deferred
Gentlemen prefer blondes & other lies
They told to you, music looping over breaths &
You remembered you left your stove on
But laugh off the impending explosion
As you wonder if you left her turned on too
Premise left unproven [...]
Sickness & jazz strung out in North Beach, halo city not yet an angel
Vagrant moonlight cast about & searching for shotgun dynamo
Seeing old ladies with holes punched through their skin, falling flatter
Teeth struggling to be kept in begging for beggars & for liars
And unable to connect to the street scene, being heard & being down
Sipping [...]
(4.5 out of 5)
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