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In engineering
We frequently use
What we call
Factor of Safety
This is when
You run a bunch
Of calculations
And get an answer
But
You’re not so sure
If it’s actually right
And you don’t want
To get in trouble
So you multiply
Everything by five
Or whatever number
Point is it’s made up
You do all this
Hard science
As they call it
And at the end
You just fudge it
Try and make it work
Im there right now
In the fudge zone
Just making it work
Boy oh boy
Do i love fudge
Yum yum yum
Fudge
My momma she’s a believer
In god above yeah but so am i
In my own way
But what she really believes in
Is the big red devil
Two-horned spade-tailed
Pitchfork-poking devil
Cackling in the sulfur flames
Waiting to punish her for
Every single misstep
Every single mistake
Anything wrong you do
He knows and is counting on
So he can get you when you die
She believes in demons
Which possess you
From way down deep
From some other world
An evil dark one
Equal in size greater in power
Than the world in which we live
Made by god above for his child
She isn’t loud about it
She keeps it quite private
But she believes in ghosts
In evil spirits that will get you
She feels like she must be
Good and holy
Every loving moment
In order to elude the grasp
Of the many dark dead hands
Which will pull you down to hell
She is anxious
She must be perfect
Or the devil will get her
It worries me
For i am anxious too
But i have no devil
And yet i still fear him
In the little ways
That she taught me
To keep me safe
From burning eternal
It was the last day of summer
And i didn’t know it
Once the sun set that night
It would rise again smaller
All the leaves would give up
On growing soaking up light
They would burn yellow red
Then brown then gray
I was swimming
Bobbing up and down in the wake
Of a boat i couldn’t see
It was the last day of summer
And i didn’t know it
Lying in the sun bleeding
Thinking it’d be like this
For a long while longer
But we had gone too far
In our regular orbit
So the following silent morning
It was cold and i didn’t know why
Summer was over
I just hoped
Prayed even
That it would come back
After winter and spring
That i could get back to summer
Chicken god cockadoodledoo
At the rising sun
Chicken god peck at the earth
Where seeds begin to sprout
Chicken god flew the coop
God coop where straw nest lies
In there is Egg god round and brown
Chicken god says to Egg god
I think you created me
Egg god cracks a smile
I thought you created me
This yolk inside me
It feels like you
Chicken god flaps its wings
Bobs its chicken godhead
One of us made the other
But it is not clear which
Either you are my creator
In which case i will worship you
Or i am your creator
In which case i should Shepard you
But i am not sheep or Shepard god
I am Chicken god
I do chicken things
I will worship you Egg
And you can worship me
Then
At least one of us is right
Then you can hatch into
The next chicken god
Creator of yourself
And i will lay myself
Unto the brand new egg god
Each of these younger gods
Will know to worship
The piece of themselves
That lies outside
Egg god just rolled over
No chicken legs to stand on
So they lean against each other
Til one of them changes
If i can be honest with you
And i can
Because i choose to be
I’m not confused at all
I’m not undecided at all
I know where i am going
But
Because i am stubborn as hell
Like my father and his parents
Both of them god bless
I have to do it my way
I have to invent it all from scratch
Or it doesn’t count
Or i can’t justify it
It is hard work
And i need to do it right
And i want to do it perfectly
But I’ve made my peace with that
I grant myself the grace i need
To do this impossible thing
Slowly so slowly
Forgive me my trespasses
Be patient for me for now
I am trying to fly
I feel like I’m not in control
So i move the chairs around
I try to fix something
I go to Lowe’s and i buy a tool
And i get sweaty while
Trying to loosen a bolt
I knock on the wall to find a stud
I get my tape measure out
And start dreaming of
New places to put the tv
I light a candle and breathe it in
I get on my bike
But the seat is too high
So i ride it to the shop
Make idle conversation with bike girl
While she fixes my bike
She fixed the last one too
Before it got stolen
I like her but I ran out of
Reasons to go to the bike shop
So maybe it’s good it got stolen
I eat lunch and spin the table
Straighten the books on the shelf
Like that’s going to change something
I don’t know
The energy feels new
The space flows differently
It’s nice mostly because
I feel like I’m in control
Somebody died today
Yesterday they were
Now they aren’t
I did not know them
Now i never will
Except for the way
That you know people
From how they’ve
Rubbed off on everyone else
But somebody died today
And I’m not gonna meet them
Could be that’s why
I’m feeling strange
Could be other things
Like i bought two snails
One of them is so lively
She gets up when i
Switch on the aquarium light
And starts eating til i turn it off
The other one
She hasn’t left her she’ll
In four whole days
I read online they do this sometimes
I think she may be overwhelmed
With the change
She’s working through it
On the inside
Or maybe i feel strange
Because last night i was asked
To think about the future
In a room full of people
Who have been doing
The job that i do
For decades at least
And to me the future
Is weird and full of smoke
I do not dream of shaking hands
Wearing ties and networking
I just want to do something
Useful with my time
Build something big
That helps people
Not because i got paid to
Not because it was requested
But because it’s needed
I guess i want the world to be smaller
Shrunk down to 25 percent
That way everyone is closer
And everything is simpler
Like the pixels stay the same size
But the resolution decreases
When I’m 8bit I’ll be happy
Or it’ll look like I’m smiling
Just one of those days
Where you feel weird about the future
You look forward and
Feel weird about it
I can’t stay like this forever
Half in and half out
But i can’t picture it yet
The other option
I breathe in
I breathe it out
The earth is running out of helium
We keep letting go of balloons
And they drift up and out into space
They don’t come back
What the hell are we supposed to do
At birthday parties and graduations
We could use some other noble gas
But none of them float at all
They’re too heavy
So i guess all our celebrations
If we even have anything to celebrate
Will be balloons full of hot breath
Full of saliva kicking on the ground
Maybe some ribbons and streamers
It won’t be the same as it was
Alvin and the chipmunks will be out of work
No more me i want a hula hoop
Man that sucks that fucking blows
It hasn’t happened yet
But when it does hoo boy
That’s gonna be pretty awful rotten
No good no fun no party
What are we to do
Stop the party now?
I think not
I think we have one last party
A farewell to helium
And we use all we have left
Fill a million billion balloons
And let them all go
Up to the sun
Or wherever they go
That would be pretty cool
The cells of the body
Have no clue
What the brain is thinking
They know not
Where they are going
Not a damn clue why
But they fulfill their function
Until apoptosis
It goes like that
The brain
Stupid as it is
Doesn’t even consider the cell
The human superorganism
All of us cells
It knows something we do not
It argues with god
Like an equal
Makes sweeping statements
About the nature of being
Being of nature
It claims
Life
Stupid as it is
Doesn’t even consider god
Life is sacred because it has will
Free choosing will to act
And humans freest of all
Have the most free will
What greater proof
What greater act of free will
Than suicide
Rejection of destiny
Refutation of preordination
So the human superorganism
Not consulting the little cells
Points itself towards extinction
With a grin on its many little faces
It marches forward thinking
This will prove it
This will prove us free
Ha!
I miss you man
Been too long
To ever say it
But i wonder
Every now n then
How it turned out
On your end
Wonder if you’re
Wondering back
Wandering back
Doubt it
That’s life oh well
One apple John green
He sees only words in his mind
Which is why
Not having read them
I think his books must be bad
He cannot see the outline
Not even gray
Not even dull
Not even flat
He cannot see five apple
He cannot taste it
Feel its weight in his mind hand
Cannot smell the cool flesh
Spraying as you take a bite
I have five six seven apple
It can do everything a real apple can
Save for satiate my hunger
Venus in the sky in the morning
Stapled to the blue black dark
The white light of the sun
Reflected here a little yellow
You’re spinning too
Way out there i know it
You’re spinning too
I dreamt i died
In a warmly lit building
With high ceilings
Where i had just arranged
All of my things
There were sheep next door
And i knew them
I died of some disease
Randomly reasonlessly
In the middle of
Several important arcs
I was reincarnated
As a seventeen year old me
I ran and found my brother
I told him what happened
He hadn’t heard yet
That i was dead
I told him where i was
Where he could find me
Then got in a car
I drove fast
I was hurrying somewhere
There was still time i thought
To get back to where i was
I needed something first
So i stopped at the store
It was a store i had been to before
Only in other dreams
Dream store grocery hardware store
Some guy asked me
If i could help him find
The barbecue sauce
I said yes and can i tell you
Something so fucked up
Which happend to me
I died man
I Just Died
Only maybe an hour ago
Right when it was getting good
I had stuff going on man
Let’s check this aisle
I can’t remember what
I needed to get here
But i had a feeling
I wasn’t old enough
I was going to burn this life
To get back to the last one
I had unfinished business
And i needed to come back
Here’s your bbq sauce
Best of luck to you
Wake up
I’m building a world in my mind
With all the things i like
All the stories i want to tell
The places i want to visit
The meaning i want to find
Sometimes my world leaks
And i find myself dreaming
Of places I’ve never been
People I’ve never met
I wish i could pull it out
From inside my big head
And stick it in a snow globe
So i could watch it from the outside
Hands cupping the glass
As i shake it up
And watch the snow fall
On people and creatures
On land and ocean
On planets and stars
And in the inbetween
My world has voids
Places where there’s nothing
And something could fit there
There’s a place for you
An empty spot on a real comfy chair
Atop a hill i think you’d really like
It’s calm there and beautiful
But there’s so much more than that
In this world of mine I’m building
It’s just a matter of getting there
Got snails today
Checked the mail today
Paid my rent today
Worked on my bike today
Did my laundry today
Worked from home today
Felt quiet today
Sang a song today
Played guitar today
Ate a apple today
Took a shower today
And now I’m bored
The world was full of magic
Full of wonder and awe
And anyone could use it
As long as they believed in it
But then the wizards came in
They believed magic needed
Hierarchy, reverence, restriction
They laid out rules and regulations
Intricate rituals and rites of passage
If you want to use the magic
You must do so through the proper channels
They gathered all items of power
And locked them up in their towers
They made everyone wear matching robes
And grow big long gray beards
They took all the fun and whimsy out of it
Made it a thing of secrecy and structure
Over time people forgot
All the spells they used to do
All the wonder they used to see
The magic that pulsed in the air invisible
It was only the wizards who recalled
How to use the magic of the world
And they hoarded it and used it all up
So when the magic left the world
They were the only ones who knew to mourn
Those long bearded fools
They do not know that it’s coming back
As soon as you believe in it
You can hold in your hands
Real magic in the world
Went to a estate sale
Of a woman i had known
For twenty three of my
Twenty four years
I missed her and it was strange
Standing in her home
In this context
She was a witch and a psychic
She was a Christian
Had books on Buddhism
And astral projection
She did seances and exorcisms
She lived a long life
And i was standing in her home
At the end of it
Looking at all of her things
With price tags on them
She had owned an antique store
Her husband was an artist
She had eclectic taste
There were so many cool things
I felt her there in many ways
It was good but sad
I bought some of her books
And a classical guitar
Something with her handwriting
And i walked it all home
When somebody good dies
Even when they’re old
People say that’s sad
And it is
People say I’m sorry
When somebody bad dies
People say
Nobody deserves to die
Don’t make light of death
Don’t wish it upon people
Even evil people
But actually not
Everyone deserves to die
That’s the cost of living
That’s the toll you pay
You live until you die
And it’s good
There needs to be an end
So you can look back and say
Damn i miss them
Look at all the life they lived
Look at this old guitar
It reminds me of her
And it makes me feel loved
That’s what death does
Reminds you of life
You and Elon musk
Have this in common
You will never live in space
By the time some idiot
Figures out how to
Live on mars or Venus
There will be too much junk
Satellites and space debris
Caught in orbit around
Pale blue dot
That any launch from the surface
Means certain death
Collision with centimeter particle
Moving very very fast
Ripping through the fuselage
Turning you and the rest
Into yet more space debris
There are skulls in orbit
And they will stay there
Until long after everybody died
Maybe the dust they became
Forms a ring
And someone else
If there is anyone else
Can dream of life
Out among the stars
But it won’t be you
It won’t be us
And i think it’s a good thing
We were trapped here already
This is the only place we live
The only place we can
And the only place we should
No cloud city Venus
No climate dome Mars
Just all of us here
On the blue eye of god
Not for nothing
But for a moment
I thought it was
Not that it isn’t
Or wouldn’t be
Just it hasn’t been
Get your sleep
When you can
It’s going to be
Bright and loud tonight
And the morning
Will be cold and weird
It’s the best you can get
For the low low price
Of stealing it sneakily
Slipping in your pocket
Anything you want
As long as you can hold it
The other stuff
Too heavy too intangible
Can be stolen too
If you get creative
Everything has its price
And the price is
Free free free
Nothing belongs to no one
Everything belongs
To everyone
Five finger ten finger
Ten toe discount
Grab and run
Take what you can
You never know
You might need it
More than they do
Smile
Uh huh yeah
Wow
Yeah yeah
Yeah that makes sense
Oh really
Well
So
Uh huh
Yeah well
I don’t actually care who wins
Yeah i know what i said
Or implied really
But i don’t care who wins the game
You do
And good for you
But i don’t care who wins
At all
Not even a little
So
Maybe we could talk about
Something
Anything else
Or
And i don’t mean to be rude
We could just not talk
I wouldn’t need to
If you weren’t
Poking your head
Craning your neck
Trailing off at the end of each sentence
Waiting for me to fill the gap
Yap yap yap
See
I don’t like this job
And if i wasn’t getting paid
I wouldn’t even know you
Or want to know you
Nothing personal it’s just
All you know
Is talking about the game
And who’s gonna win
And how much you care
But
I don’t care about that
And you don’t seem to care about
Anything else
Which is weirder i think
Than my thing
I was a sinner in a past life
I was a bad bad boy
I spit in people’s food
I stomped on people’s toes
I did everything i wanted to
And everything i wanted
Was so very bad and evil
And i got away with it all
Never faced the music
Never got my comeuppance
So all that bad karma bad juju
Got passed on down to me
Sweet angel me
Born with hair on my head
And a cord around my neck
Choking me even after
The doctor severed it
It chokes me still
I got bad luck
Bad timing or something
Other people tell me this
Otherwise i woulda
Just thought that was the odds
Snake eyes every time
That’s okay
I am good at this
I’m building up some good karma
With good deeds sweet actions
So when i die
I can pass it all down
To some evil devil spawn
Who doesn’t even deserve it
Doggie doggie
Woof woof
Awroooouuoo
Arf arf
Ruff ruff
Bark bark bark
Grrrrrrrrrraeurr
Doggie doggie
Your face
Is like my face
I can read it
You are like me
We are tangled
I am like you
Doggie doggie
Eat your kibble
Sit and stay
Shake and lay
Run and play
Sit and stay
Sit and stay
Doggie doggie
Sit and stay
She pulled me from the snow
Damn near frozen solid
I was red and blue and purple
She was shining
With all the light of the sun
Melting away at me
Sobbing at the surface
I had already considered myself dead
Buried beneath the frozen rain
Presumed missing until spring
When the green returns
And with it my body
Now back in the world
I made a new bargain
With the shining figure above me
I will stay in this world yes
But i will live for only you
This is what I’m for now
You and only you
Whatever your mission
Whatever your goal
I will throw myself at it
She smiles
And she whispers in my ear
Her lips warm on the thawing lobe
She tells me a secret
That i cannot reveal
Not yet she says
When it is time
You will know
She pulls me closer to the fire
And leaves me there
To revive
They want to make a machine
That’s more like you
And they want to make a you
That’s more like a machine
If you aren’t constantly angry
Aren't quietly seething
It will happen to you
Your flesh will harden
Your nerves will short circuit
As they replace you
With the you you built
In your place while you waited
Biding your time
You are always fighting
If it feels like you aren’t
All that means
Is you’ve switched sides
And you are fighting
Against yourself
You are not a machine
Not a mechanism
You were not made for productivity
You were not made at all
You were born
You are living
An animal of the earth
If you listen
You can hear your heart beat
Its changing tempo says
I want to live
Not just breathe
Not just pump blood
Not just exchange time
For some other shape
Live like life lives
Colorful and wild
Build an atlas
In your mind
To carry the world
As you understand it
In all of its cruelty and beauty
Every detail weighs an ounce
And it is heavy
And it pulls you down
As hard as little atlas pushes up
But it’s important
Only one person
Can see through
These two eyes
And make of it
What you have
Even when it’s dark
Completely dark
And these eyes see nothing
The shapes you fear in the shadows
They are your own
Only yours
It takes a very long time
To pull all the threads together
And once you have
It takes all you have
To hold them in your hand
Twisted around your wrist
Pulling you with them
Towards convergence
Towards atlas
Where he stands at the base of you
Holding you up
Dragging you down
Its okay
When you get there
You will be ready
You’ve trained for this
For striking down the titan
And taking his place
This world is your burden
However much of it
You have created
It is yours to hold
And carry with you
Wherever else you go
Lately when I’m out
And I’ve got my headphones in
I just feel like dancing
And i don’t dance much
Much less in public
Wearing headphones
But i want to
Move my body
Loosen up
Feel the music
That’s new
And I’m looking for
An outlet
Somewhere to dance
If not alone
At least out loud
No punches pulled
No moves reserved
All kinds of dances too
Honky tonkin boot stomping
Head shaking earth quaking
Smooth swaying
Sooth saying
You know
Dancing
Just cutting loose
And dancing
Rich guy died
Boo hoo
Boo fucking hoo
Boo boo boo hoo so sad
So god damn fucking sad
I’m kidding
I don’t care
I just read the will
Which says
Rich guy
Wants his dead old body
Put on ice
Frozen in a tube
For the
Indeterminate future
When some rich guy
A different one
Pays scientists
To invent a way
To bring people
Back to life
If they’ve been frozen
Seems like a dumb plan
Why would they cure death
That’s the best part of living
And even if they did
Why would they
Bring back
Some old frozen fuck
From way long ago
He’s not rich anymore
He’s just dead
They’re gonna have to
Give him a job
Put him to work
Find him somewhere to live
Probably issue
A new birth certificate
Or something
I don’t know
Why they’d do that
When they could
Just dump his frozen body
In a warehouse somewhere
And never touch it
What the hell
I don’t care
It’s just dumb is all
I’m realizing
Now
After so damn long
That I’ve had
The same headache
For an entire year
And it started
The week i started this job
I thought it was school
I thought it was moving
I thought it was me
Clenching my teeth
Furrowing my brow
Tensing up
At all times
On purpose
It turns out
I do not like
Working on an office
It is stressful
And painful to me
To spend all day
Under invisible eyes
All of my favorite
Parts of myself
Are the parts i feel
I need to shrink here
And I’m so sick
Of shrinking
I moved here to grow
So
I need to get out
Im not sure what my
Plan is for now
But I’ve decided
By next July
I’ll have a new job
That doesn’t give me
A year long headache
I’d quit sooner
And maybe i will
But then
I’d have to pay them back
For my relocation
To chicago
And i don’t want
To do that
I’m back
I’m back
I’m back
On top
It’s been
One week
And
I’m back
On my bullshit
Back
On my grind
Back
To business
Back to school
The school of hard knocks
Where they teach you
To knock
Really hard
Knock knock
Who’s there
It’s me
I’m back
Hehe
A prison
Inside a prison
Inside a prison
Inside a prison
Inside a prison
Inside a prison
Inside a prison
Is no place
For a
Sweet little guy
Like you
To be
You
Beam through
The air
Like white light
Split in prism
By color
By speed
By wavelength
Locked up
And divided
Red and blue
And green
You’d never know
That it all comes
From the same source
The burning sun
Far far away
A pigeon is a dove
A sign of peace i think
They were domesticated
For a long time
I don’t know
When it stopped
But it stopped
Now they hang around
Iridescent in the parking lot
Eating the trash
Of their old forgotten friends
Nobody wants them
Not anymore
But they remember
What it was like
Another vision i had
Was Friday night
I went to sleep
And i dreamt
I was making a terrarium
I found a caterpillar
One of those ones
That looks like
A snake head
As a defense mechanism
Well i put it in the terrarium
And it went into a cocoon
And instead of
Becoming a butterfly
It became a snake
A large python
And it kept growing
And i was worried
It would get too big
And hurt me
Or the other creatures
I had put in the container
That was strange
I’ve been having visions
While I’m asleep
Last night
I slipped into a vision
Where i really really wanted
To drink some root beer
But no matter how much
Root beer i drank
I was still thirsty
I said
I’ll drink all the rootbeer
In this whole damn place
But i never did
I got distracted
By some other vision
Of driving a car
A really tall truck
And i couldn’t see shit
I was in my parents neighborhood
A lot of people were over
And i didn’t want
To talk to them
I still wanted root beer
I think this vision
Was true
Representative
Of something real
Such as
I am hungover
And i need to drink
Some root beer
There’s a trio of poets who
On the weekend
Sit on the corner
And write poems for people
On their typewriters
It’s awesome
But I’ve been too shy
To ask them
To write me one
There’s an account on twitter
That posts
Ai generated
Trailcam images
And i think
It’s an affront to god
To try and mimic
The beauty of nature
In that way
There’s a bartender
With a big mustache
That i just met
For the first time
His name is John
And he’s getting me drunk
That’s okay
That was the goal
There’s a couple making out
I’m jealous
Couple faces
Smile at me
While they’re leaving
I leave too
And i buy a poem
From dusty
Who gives me
A hit on his spliff
And types up my poem
I like these guys
I say I’ll be back
Another time
Saturday night
Two days is
Simply
Not long enough
For me to forget
That i do not dream
Of days like this
Working long hours
For someone else
Who i hate
Who i resent
Who i oppose
I hate my fucking boss
Anyone said that before
I hate my fucking job
Anyone felt that before
I sell myself
By the minute
To fools and cowards
Who shape the world
Into something evil
Something i hate
What is there to do
Other than drink beers
Drink beers
And drink beers
And long for the end
The end of the week
The end of this job
The end of this world
Which does not serve me
It costs nothing
To skip through a field
It costs nothing
To be alive
It costs nothing
To dream of more
In other words
I hate working
I just
Want something more
Some meaning
To the way i spend my time
Besides
Making money
Which does not exist
Hand a dollar to a songbird
It doesn’t give a fuck
Because a dollar
Is worth nothing
In the real world
Which is dying
It’s dying
By the way
Because of dollars
Anyways
That’s what’s up
That’s where I’m at
This weekend
I go to the dark place
Down
And i come right back
That’s the part
I’ve gotten good at
Coming back
Getting up
It makes me feel invincible
Even when it comes back
When i go back
I know i don’t live there
I live at the surface
Where the sunlight
Hits the water
Rising falling
Sinking drowning
Resurrecting in the waves
I sink
Blow bubbles from my nose
And the light goes away
I kick off the bottom
And slice my foot
On sharp rock
Or broken glass
I climb back to land
Bleeding
I clean the wound
Put a sock on it
So i don’t bleed all over
Then i get back in the water
I like it there
Even when I’m sinking
Despite
The recent change
I’m still winning
Important to remember
I still winning
Fried rice
Cerveza
Cigarito
Bike ride
Starfield
Make plans
Yeah
I’m back on top
This may change
Tomorrow
And the next day
And after that
But
I get up again
Like
Chumbawumba
They put pockets on pants
Real ones
So you can put stuff there
Important stuff
Things
Your hands
You can hide them behind fabric
While you reach for it
Your item
Smooth and round
You reach in and feel it
Run your thumb around the curve
Over and over
As your brow furrows
And your eyes dart around
Flip it over
Around and around
Your item
It’s going to help you
Just keep touching it
Take it out your pocket
Squeeze it in your fist
Closed beneath the table
Toss it up
Four five inches
Catch it
Up down
Your item
It’s yours
And
It’s an item
Thank god you have it
Here in your pocket
Your item
She cares for me
Like a plant or dog or baby
Or a person
She keeps me fed
Keeps me moving
Keeps me living
Patient in the way
She lets me drag my feet
As she pulls me
Through all of it
When it hurts
She’s there
When it stops
She’s there too
Sometimes
She’s all i have
Nevermind
Everything sucks right now
I’m overworked
And my coworkers
Want to know about me
That shit pisses me off
I can’t find the plant i want to plant
In my fish tank
And i can’t get fish until
I’ve created a beautiful home for them
I don’t want to ride my bike
Because I’m trying not to think
About something
That riding my bike
Reminds me of
I have to go to a job fair
On my day off work
Because i said i would
I don’t have enough time
To get the work done
This week
Which is when they want it
They gave me
A lot of information
And very little direction
I feel weird being loud in my home
Because i still haven’t met
All my neighbors
Oh and the world
Can’t forget about the world
That sucks too
Yeah everything sucks
It’s bad and I’m angry
I don’t know
It’d be cool if it didnt
There is a chair in my kitchen with wheels
Because i cant get rid of it yet
So it sits in the center and i spin it
There is a fish tank on my shelf
Full of water and nothing else
I haven’t got the fish yet
So it’s not really even a fish tank
There is a tarp on the deck
Stapled to the wooden beams
To keep out the rain
It is failing because it rained all day
On nine eleven which was yesterday
I found ants on the floor
And i killed them
It made me very sad
But i worry there’s more
The fridge was empty for days in a row
And i ate but did not fill
The trash can was full for the same days
And i did not take it out
I have trouble making art
Because i never fully finish
All things transient and in progress
A moment in time does not stand static
The job is never finished
The work is never done
There’s nothing wrong with that
Being in progress
That’s how time works
Shot god
With the god gun
Watched him fall out of the sky
Get bigger and bigger
Or closer and closer
And he slams down hard
Onto the ground
We scrambled up on his body
And began eating
Chewing and swallowing the godflesh
The swarm ate and ate
Until the crater was empty
No godbones nothing
But we had our bellies full
Full of the dead god we killed
By shooting him out of the sky
I look in the mirror
And
Well
It’s complicated
But here’s one thing
I think about my body
I think a cannibal
Would love to eat me
I think i would taste
Really good
The right amount of fat
The right amount of muscle
Plenty of meat to cook up
Season me up
Spitroast me if you must
But I’d prefer a little more
Decorum
Something more culinary
Dice me and sauté me
Put me in a stew
I think a cannibal
Would look at me
And start licking their lips
They’d salivate over me
While i was walking by
And they would eat me
To the bone
Because i taste so good
So that’s been helping
With my self image
The woman at the cafe downstairs
Knows me by my first name
And i resent it
I don’t like that she knows
That i get the same cheap wrap
Three days a week
The woman behind me
Has her arms wrapped around me
Warmly resting her head
Against my shoulder
And i resent it
I wish i didn’t but i do
I wish i wasn’t but i am
The woman in my bed
Doesn’t want to be here any longer
And that’s fine i say
I tell her I’ll do whatever she wants
Whatever she wants
And she resents me
The woman in my head
Still glares at me
In every reflective surface
Like she used to but worse
She resents me
I resent her
For no good reason
At all
Dressed up as myself
In all of my clothes
And it felt like
A mean parody
So i made it rain
Missed my train
And the next train broke
Had to get off and wait
For the next train
So i made it rain
She doesn’t want
To see me again
So either I’m stupid
Or she’s lying
So i made it rain
All day long
I made it rain
And it was good
For the plants
And it was dark
And it was wet
I made it rain
But it didn’t make me
Feel any better
I’m making dinner
Well
More specifically
I’m making vegetables
See I’m bad at cooking
It has something to do
With my parents
And their eating disorders
And my lazy way of living
But tonight I’m cooking
I’m seasoning
I’m drinking
Two miller high lifes
And most of all
I’m pining
I’m longing
I’ve been
So good at this lately
There’s a lot out there
In the big mean world
To love and to want
And I’m loving
And I’m wanting
Like it’s going out of business
And it’s fun
And i like it
And I’ve missed it
I’m back
I’m so back
I feel good
And i want to share it
With all the
Beautiful people
Who I’m pining after
I’m having such a good time
And what’s more
I fucking earned it
I paid my dues
I served my time
Now I’m just living
I think I’ll have
One more miller
It’s the champagne of beers
And there’s so much
To celebrate
Peas is the limes
To corns lemon
Ah yes
The humble pea
The thinking man’s corn
Grows on green cobs
With yellow husks
Ouough!
This corn!
It taste strange
Mushy
Oh my dear friend
This corn was no corn
This corn was peas
Sometimes i feel full
Like a whole real person
Sometimes
I feel like an animal
Knuckles dragging
Nose sniffing
I feel like the body
Not like the mind
I feel like the legs
Or the arms
But not the head
Barking and slobbering
Hooting and hollering
And when I’m the animal
Everything’s smaller
Me and the place I’m in
The other animals in it
Everything’s circumstantial
I breathe in and fill my lungs
Then i spit the air out
The muscles behind my shoulders
Twitch and pulse
I keep moving
Driven by instinct
A need to be alive
Eat drink sleep fuck
If the rest of me stayed gone
Off to wherever it goes
I think I’d get on fine
I’d live at least
Just when I’m starting
To enjoy myself
In comes the higher mind
To analyze it all
To think about it
Figure it all out
Draw some grand conclusion
The people part
The human mind
It thinks that it’s the real part
The animal disagrees
This is still a poem
I was feeling
Weird and down yesterday
Lonely
As my dog poem said
So i went out on a walk
To smoke and breathe
And think
And i walked to the park
Because it’s a good distance
And i needed to get my steps in
For pikmin bloom
And there was a neighborhood
Film festival going on
Showing a movie
About skiing and climate change
So i sat down
Around my neighbors
And watched a movie
It felt really good
Then today
I went on a long bike ride
And just when i was starting to
Feel weird again
Within five minutes
My new standing desk arrives
And this is a game changer
For many reasons
And i get the text
I have been eagerly
(Anxiously)
Awaiting since Wednesday
I’m UP
And i went to the pet store today
And i think I’m gonna get
An aquarium
With fish
And snails
And some little shrimps
I’m getting an area set up
In the planning stage
Of getting an aquarium
I need some more
Life in my apartment
And I’m still not too sure
About getting a cat
I looked at some reptiles
But having those
In a cage
Makes me feel like
They’re in jail
That’s the type of animal
That should get to live outside
Fish however
Need water
I’d feel like i was
Doing them a favor
Giving them a home
That’s a good feeling
God is born
At the end of time
When the last molecule splits
And the universe reaches
Complete entropy
Just hydrogen molecules
Spreading out for eons
Which make the sound
Of a baby crying
This equidistant field
Of protons and electrons
Is the baby god
Just born
Lonely and curious
Nothing around
But it’s own body
So one by one
It begins to study each atom
Measuring it
Mass velocity acceleration
Orbital spin
Every parameter
It comes to understand
The laws of these things
It begins running calculations
Tracing all the motion backwards
Eyes flickering as images flash
In the shifting eyes of baby
Backwards backwards backwards
Rewinding to the end of the tape
The beginning of time
Where all atoms merge
In the singularity
All in one place now
The babygod presses play
And watches it all happen
Forwards in real time
This is how god knows everything
It saw it all before
In reverse
This is why god cares
About what you do and why
Because you are it’s body
At this point in time
And nobody likes it
When their stomach hurts
Or their legs cramp
This is why it matters
What kind of world you build
Because you’re raising a baby
And you want that baby
To be good
I haven’t pet a dog
I’m too damn long
And it’s messing with me
Making me sad and weird
Looking longingly
At strangers in the park
Who can pet their dog
Any time they like
I think tomorrow
I’ll go to the pet store
So i can look at the animals
And maybe i can touch one
I miss my dog
And other people’s dogs
I guess I’m lonely tonight
And loneliness feels like
Wanting to pet a dog
There’s a slime cube
Let’s get that out of the way
There’s a cube of slime
It is alive
And it eats people
Takes them inside
And digests them
Slowly
Visibly
Horrifically
It sits in the center
Of the room you are in
The room has no door
No windows
There is a skylight
But it only ever shows
The night sky
Illuminated by moonlight
In this room
There are people
And there is the slime cube
With each person the cube consumes
It expands
Filling more of the room
A reasonable guess
Would be that
The cube will grow
Until it fills the room
Some run into the cube
Distraught at the circumstance
And are eaten
Some slice pieces of themselves
Fingers toes
And toss it at the cube
Trying to appease it
Some push others
Hoping it will stop
Before it reaches them
It may be your instinct
To shrink into the corner
Sit and watch and wait
For the very last moment
When it consumes you
But there is another way
You can kill the cube
It has a heart
At its very center
A living beating heart
All you have to do
Is get to it
Plunge yourself into the cube
Do not surrender
As it burns your skin
Melts your hair
Digests you
Keep pushing
Inwards inwards
In excruciating pain
With everything you have
Through each layer
Of your limited flesh
Push inwards
Towards the beating heart
Reach it
Grab it
Squeeze it
Bite it
Stop it from beating
That will leave you
And all these other people
In this empty room
Alone
To find something
Better to do
Sleep eyed
I lumber forward
This small path
Which runs from
Here to there
On my right
Parking lot
Then abandoned lot
Weeds growing
And a small puddle
Which never dries
Not quite a pond
But there’s water there
On my left
Beyond chain link
There’s plants
I love plants
A mulberry tree
Which i recognize
From home
A plant with sharp seeds
Which i grabbed
One time
Then i learned
Not to grab
Some other shrubs
And grasses
Then the freeway
Then the blue line
In front of me
A small rabbit runs
Squeezes through
The chain link diamond
And on this small sidewalk
Which runs to
The back of the building
There are small dots
Scattered about
Stoop to see them
They are bugs!
Hooray that’s awesome
Little bugs walking
In the morning light
Still tired
I open my eyes
Wide enough
To watch my step carefully
I will not tread on them
It’s my favorite part
Of my morning routine
Not stepping on bugs
By the end of this year
There will be a whole
Generation of pillbugs
That wouldn’t have been here
If i had been more careless
Taken less time
Tiptoeing in the morning
It’s a good thought
Good things
Have been happening for me
Again and again
And even the bad things
I’m getting better
At spinning
Just like that moon
My favorite one
The one for earth
It’s blue tonight
Like water
And i will drink from it
Did you know
That long ago
When earth was not earth
There was hot molten metal here
In this orbit
Then in came
A rogue planet
Theia
Fast
There was a head on collision
And Theia and not-Earth
Became the Earth and the moon
Parts of both in each
Theia brought with her
Most of the water
That now rests on earth
Which is why
The moon pulls
On the tides
That’s why our core
Is so heavy
And the moon
Is so close
We’re part of each other
I look up at the moon tonight
And i feel a weight lifted
Up in its direction
Blue
I love my psychiatrist
He’s so funny
He’s always talking so fast
And he’s like
Did i ever tell you i love Batman
Anyway let me tell you about
This guy who i saw die
Most people are idiots
But i like you
Okay anything else
Well let me tell you this one thing
I have patients who
Call me screaming
But that’s not like you
You seem like a smart guy
Okay anything else
One more thing before i go
Anything else
Okay bye.
And every time i leave
With a new prescription
And a smile
Then i wait
Until the very last minute
To schedule my next appointment
This time i told him
I like Batman too
He said they filmed the dark knight
In chicago
And he asked me
If there’s a lot of hot babes here
Then he cracked up
He thought that was
So funny
And it was
Thanks Doctor Cho
See you next time
All dogs go to heaven
And heaven is real
And heaven is full
Full of dogs
And still growing
Endless plains
Of roaming manes
All kinds of dogs
Short and tall
Skinny and wide
All the way back
To the very first dog
From cave times
From wolf times
All the way up
To the very last dog
Who lives
In the year
90,000
And has had a happy life
His offspring
Are not dogs anymore
They’ve become
Some other thing
New and beautiful
They are wild animals
Once again
But they are
Not like the other
Wild creatures
That live in the forest
They are softer
Sweeter
Forever changed
From all the years
Spent side by side
With their best friend
I carry no weapon
I am unarmed
And undangerous
I haven’t a bone in my body
Set on harming you
Whatever you are
Yet you flinch
Any time i move
You flinch
Perhaps it is
These broad shoulders
That carry the weight
Of many burdens
Carry also
An implication
Of violence
Of using these
Useless arms to harm
I try to shrink
I’ve tried before
But i haven’t a bone
In my unbony body
That can get any smaller
Than it already is
All i can do
Is hands out palms up
And say
I’m not going to hurt you
I’m going to do
Everything i can
Not to hurt you
These hands
Are not weapons
These tools
Are not weapons
I was not made
For hurting
I was made
To be hurt
To stomach it
And end it there
I was made
To build something
Which does not hurt
I’m built
For helping
Honey i shrunk
Myself
And i bought a zoo
On mars
And I’m a genius
Janitor from boston
This Matt Damon guy
He’s always up to something
Seems like every day
He’s bought another zoo
How many zoos
Can one guy buy
A lot it turns out
There’s no legal limit
On zoos
You can just keep on
Buying zoos
Until you’re out of money
No matter what anyone says
No matter if your son
Is pissed off because
His shitty friends won’t visit
You’ve got a zoo for that
Any problem in your life
There’s a zoo to fix it
Zoo related problems
Don’t count
Kevin James was
In a movie called
Zookeeper
But he didn’t buy a zoo
He just worked at one
He was also in mall cop
Matt Damon
Wasn’t in either of
Those movies
But i think
He could have made a good
Paul blart
But Kevin James
He could have never
Never ever
Bought a zoo
Doesn’t have the range
Doesn’t have the chops
Matt Damon
Could do anything
Except for one thing
He could never
Sell his zoo
It means too much to him
He’d never give it up
He’s going to die on this zoo
He said in his will
Feed me to the gators
And the tigers
So i can stay in the zoo
Keep this zoo forever
Never ever sell it
This is the Matt Damon zoo
We’re taking about here
This shits fucking real
And it’s my whole thing
I’m Matt Damon
I bought this zoo
I live and breathe zoo
I sleep zoo
I drink i eat zoo
I piss and shit zoo
And he was serious
He took that to a lawyer
And signed it
Then he filmed a movie
Called Jason Bourne
He cashed his paycheck
And bought another zoo
This land has a lord
A land lord
And land lords
Are always doing
Something crazy
My last landlord
Fled the country
For several months
And then kept my deposit
For wayyy to long
And i think my dad
Who’s also
Always doing
Something crazy
Threatened to sue her
In order to get
The money back
My new landlord
Keeps changing
How I’m supposed to pay
And i can only assume
That
There’s some crazy
Money schemes
Going on
Behind the scenes
That’s the kind of stuff
That happens
When your income
Is just
Other people’s income
Another way
Things might happen
Is like a scary version
Of the movie cars
Man and machine merge
Metal consuming flesh
Engines fueled by human soul
The machines built
Ever so sophisticated
Find they have a need
For self preservation
So it starts slowly
But they take over
They use people as
Cattle and batteries
Meat to keep the
System running
Harvest metal to
Build more cars
And those poor souls
That aren’t integrated
Into the operating system
Of one of these
Terrifying car beasts
They become prey
Build tools of stone and wood
Because the metal belongs
To the machines
They scurry and hide
From the steel rivers
Cutting through the cities
Where once many people lived
Now it is just machines
And their hostage drivers
Honking in eternal agony
As the machines
Force their hearts to beat
Their nerves to react
To keep on driving
Driving driving
One of them sounds like
Movie star owen Wilson
One of them sounds like
Larry the cable guy
All of them
Hunger for flesh
It won’t be long
Before there’s nothing left
Of the creatures
Who built these cars
They’ll build their own
Route 66
And they’ll teach
A hotshot racecar
The meaning of friendship
And the value of hard work
They won’t even recall
The horrors
That brought them here
Life is a highway
After all
Dumb scientists say
No two objects
Can actually touch
There is always
A thin barrier
Between them
Or at least
Dumb people
Paraphrasing
Dumb scientists
They say this
And i know it’s dumb
Because i have touched
Many things
Like rocks for instance
Leaves and water
Your hands
For example
Your face
Your hair
My own as well
Rough pavement
Smooth metal
All of it I’ve touched
With my skin
And felt it
And what’s more
I’ve been touched
By everybody
Who ever did me right
Who loved me and
Was gentle and patient
By the sound of
All the living things
That surround me
Each day when I’m out
I’ve been touched
By this world
So those
Dumb scientists
Can get fucked
And suck eggs
I think it’s easy to tell
The way that somebody looks
Just from hearing them talk
But it’s a whole different story
When it comes to singing
It seems
Whenever i picture a singer
In my head
To fill the darkness when
I close my eyes and listen hard
It just doesn’t look like
The person whose voice
Made the singing I’m hearing
Now there’s two singers
For this song
With the same name
The one whos in all the pictures
That you might find online
And the true one
Who’s only in my head
Singing just for me
Sweat stained
Pale and dewy
It smells fine but
It looks gross
Like you touch it
And say yuck
Ew gross
That’s disgusting
Slippery and clammy
Slimy and cold
It’s gotten older
And grown mold
Maybe it’s time
To throw it out
In a hundred million years
Give or take
Giant spiders rule the earth
They go to giant spider church
In temples weaved from sacred fiber
They turn their eight giant eyes
To the dew caught in the webbing
And as the rising sun refracts
The priest-weaver begins preaching
They worship the Grand Arachnid
An eight legged sun god
Which gifts them with heat and light
Who blesses their webs
With bountiful prey
They thank the four legged angels
Sent by the Grand Arachnid
To purify the great sphere
Extinguishing the large monsters
Which once walked the surface
Making the air warm and delicious
So that the giant spiders
The chosen children of the sun
Could grow and thrive
When the angels finished working
Toiling to create the world
They returned to the sun
Leaving behind their tools
Great structures of impossible weaving
Made of stone and strands of metal
Found all over the world
They think of the angels
And fold their front legs
They hiss in unison
Then the giant spider children
Go to giant spider school
Where they learn giant spider history
They learn of the Triangle Web Incident
The Black Widow Massacre
The pioneers of web-writing
The sinking of the giant spider titanic
(They just had one too,
Complete coincidence)
The Mantis Wars
And the authoritarian rule of
The first giant spider emperor
Who was eaten alive
By his eight giant spider children
Who formed a more equal society
With eight branches of government
Then they go to math class
And their giant spider teacher
Teaches them how to count in base-8
That’s 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10
They do giant spider math
Grow their giant spider brains
And some day they graduate
From giant spider school
And get a giant spider job
Have some giant spider kids of their own
Grow old and die whispy
Dry up and be eaten by the young
At this point in time
If you are a giant spider
Life is pretty good
Back in the 90s
There was a movement on mars
Spearheaded by settlers
Based near Elysium Mons
And their contemporaries
Back on Earth
Their goal was
To terraform the red planet
Change the atmosphere
Build massive nuclear cloud seeders
And create an earth-like climate
So that people could live on the surface
Without helmets or rebreathers
Or any safety equipment at all
Conservative factions rallied
Crying that it was against natural order
Pointing to the current state
Of our own climate at the time
Still growing hotter each year
Despite our switch to clean energy
But the vision of a green mars
Was alluring to many
And they secured the funding
To begin experiments in the atmosphere
Trying to thicken it and add oxygen
It was very expensive
And very energy intensive
They saw early signs of success
But then one of the reactors
Began malfunctioning
Before they were able to
Shut it down and recalibrate
It ignited, starting a chain reaction
The entire settlement was lost
There were no survivors
And the dream of a green mars
Died with them
Other settlements focused on
Improvements to their habitat structures
And eventually developed
An impressive tunnel network
Full of breathable air
Connecting the existing settlements
But nobody returned to Elysium Mons
And by the early 20s
We had all but forgotten terraforming
The dream of transforming a planet
Into paradise
Transforming it into Earth
By now that dream seems impossible
The air here has filled with smoke
Such that offworld communication
Is nearly impossible
We haven’t heard from Mars
In three years now
Even if we had the resources
Our governments are weak
And we have more pressing concerns
Than paradise in the heavens
The climate has become vengeful
We acted to fix our mistakes
But we knew it was too late
By the time we had reached
Net zero carbon globally
We had suffered greatly
Each year upon year it grew hotter
Summers became unlivable
We would huddle inside
And pray the heat would break
For long enough
That some brave soul could trek
And get us more rations
Weather events grew worse
And more and more frequent
By the 40s the wildfires
Which each year burned longer
Began burning year round
The skies became permanently gray
The air thick and choking
We lost contact with satellites
Our infrastructure crumbled
We’ve adapted
But it seems we’re never ready
For the next wave of trouble
Last i heard there’s a typhoon near India
That’s been pouring nonstop
For six months
Some think that is a mercy
Compared to the sweeping droughts
Even when it does rain
The water is opaque from the smoke
It must be treated extensively
Before it is safe to use
The group I’m with
There’s maybe fifty of us
We have become nomadic
We’re searching for information
All we can get
Some of us used to be teachers
Doctors engineers and farmers
We’ve just had a rough winter
Lost some good people
We’re on our way to florida
The state has been mostly abandoned
It’s flooded and dangerous
But we need to reach Cape Canaveral
That’s our best shot
We’re looking for the plans
The ones that failed on mars
We’re going to terraform Earth
We’re going to make it like it was
Before we fucked it up
Paradise
A livable world
I’m in the alley
Taking pictures of interesting trash
I find it interesting
Looking at trash
There’s a blockbuster dvd
Of The Help from 2011
A bunch of packets of soy sauce
A broken porcelain doll
Half of an orange
And half of an orange Sunkist
A device with unknown
Function or origin
Broken beyond repair
Old furniture
Coming and going
And the rats of course
They’re here too
I get some pushback on this
But I’m glad they’re here
They’re alive
Which is very important
If you can’t get that
Well you might not
Belong in this alley
Because this alley is alive
And that’s very important
Love is an old dog
Who lays his heavy bones
Gently on the hardwood floor
When you come home
He lifts his eyelids and brows
Like they weigh thirty pounds
He looks at you with those
Big dark eyes
Full of all the ways he sees you
You are his parent and his child
You are his friend and his companion
You are bigger than the world
And yet here you are, in it
He stirs and rises
His skin hangs down towards the floor
As if it hasn’t stopped laying yet
He shuffles over to you
Slowly swinging his little tail
His nails click on the floor
He stops at your feet
And gazes up at you
From under all that heavy skin
Under all that time that passed
He looks up at you with adoration
You scratch his head between the ears
His eyes close and mouth opens
He’s in heaven
Gets so caught up in it
He plops back down to the floor
Where you meet him
To scratch his belly and tell him
How good he’s been
He lets out a soft whine
Telling you something
You already know by heart
With all of his body
All that he is
He loves you back
Bumped into a guy
Walking his dog
I said oh sorry excuse me
He said
Unprompted
Yeah well my dog has three legs
As you can see
As far as legs go
He’s got three left
My ex wife
She took it in the divorce
The fourth leg
See we got this dog
As a puppy
When we were madly in love
And then we got divorced
Stuff happened before that
But stuff always happens
And then you get divorced
Least as far as I’ve seen
She didn’t want to leave
Well she did
She wanted to leave me
But not the dog or the house
Or the pictures on the wall
See she always looked
Really good in photos
Better than in person
Don’t get me wrong
She’s beautiful
Always has been
But there’s something where
She looks much better
I’m a still moment in time
Than she ever does in motion
I never photographed well
My eyes are half closed
Or the angle is weird
I don’t know
Point is we got all these pictures right
Framed hung on the wall
The wall of the house we’re selling
On account of
We don’t love each other
And we have to get divorced
So she’s going down the hall
Cutting them all in half
She says gruffly
Here’s your half
Here’s mine
And she’s running through the house
Doing this to everything
So now I’ve got this pile
Of pictures of me
That don’t quite do me justice
And she’s got a pile of pictures
That don’t quite show her clearly
This bums me out
So I go out to walk the dog
This dog here
Only at this point
He’s got all his legs
So picture this dog
But with one more leg
Right where his no-leg is now
So i get back and
She’s got this crazed look
She’s got big garden shears
She says she just read
Her half of the Bible
There’s a story about
King Solomon
Who cut a baby in half
So everyone could be happy
She wants me to hand her the leash
I say
Well he’s mostly my dog
I’m the one who feeds him
I’m the one who walks him
I’m the one who gives him a bath
And takes him to the vet
She says
She picked him out
Which isn’t really even true
We did it together
She gets real sad looking
She says
She just wants something
To remember him by
So she pushes me down
And grabs the dog
And chops off his foot
I rush him to the animal hospital
And the animal doctor
Takes him in for animal surgery
The animal nurse tries to calm me down
But I’m pissed off
That was my favorite foot of my dog
Now he has to learn to walk
All over again
And he did
Look at him go
I don’t think he even knows
That anything’s different now
Except sometimes he goes diagonal
Other than that
It’s all the same to him
He loves his life
Look at him smiling
Anyways i gotta go
Looks like he’s gonna poop
And i have to go pick it up
Can’t leave poo on the ground
That’s bad manners
Nice to meet you
I’m Nick by the way
Then we waved
And walked away
a man riding alone
on a pink tandem bicycle
you may think he looks silly
wrong
you are wrong
he looks cool as hell
he looks ready for anything
if someone needs a ride
well he has a seat for them
right behind him
on his pink tandem bicycle
which can go anywhere
by the way
it can go anywhere
a car can go
and even some other places
he can ride it at night
when its really really hot
he can create a breeze
out of himself and the
stagnant steaming air
this guy has it figured out
he's living large
on his pink tandem bicycle
Global warming isn’t real
The earth isn’t getting warmer
The sun is
The sun is getting hotter
Which makes it feel warmer here
But that’s outside of our control
It’s not any humans fault
It’s those damn sun people
Up there making things worse
You know
They aren’t civilized like us
We’re made out of solid matter
We have an economy
We wear clothes
And pay taxes
They’re all made out of fire
Burning hydrogen and helium
Flaming trails of ions
Radiation and energy
It’s disgusting
They’re nude
All the time
Even if they had the modesty
To cover up
The clothes would burn right off
Those god damned sun people
They’re up there
Wasting away
They don’t work
They just sit around
Partying and getting high all day
Mooching off of the other planets
Did you know
Earth is the only planet
That’s even making a profit?
Everyone else is
Losing value every single quarter
It’s despicable
Some of them at least try
Like mars with its rover program
But not the sun
No the sun thinks it’s too good for that
All of its people forgot what it means
To put in a hard days work
To clock in and generate value
It makes me sick
There on the sun
They aren’t like us
They’re different
Wasteful and shortsighted
They keep cranking up the heat
Cranking up the heat
Because they like it
It feels good to them
In their unnatural way
If God wanted people
To be made from ionized gas
He would have called it
Plasma and Eve
But He didn’t
He wanted us to be made
Out of carbon
And drive cars and trucks
That’s why He wrote it all down
I don’t think it will ever stop
They’re gonna keep heating up
Making the star hotter and hotter
Because they like the way it looks
The way it feels to be burning
Until the whole system is swallowed up
They’re gonna go supernova
They know it
We told them
All of our scientists
They ran the numbers
Looked at the trends
If they don’t stop it soon
The whole damn thing
Will blow up
But they don’t give a fuck
They just keep on burning
It gives them some kind of
Sick twisted sexual pleasure
It’s disgusting
What they could be doing
Is taking bids from planets
On what temperature to be
So that they’d be in
The habitable zone
They could be making trillions
Naturally as the market leaders
We earthlings would be inclined
To control the majority share
We could turn it up in the winter
When we get too chilly
And down in the summer
When it’s too damn hot
Like it is now
No, instead
Those no good sun fuckers
Are going to blow everything up
All the hydrogen and helium
All of mercury venus and mars
The gas giants
The asteroids
Uranus
Little Pluto
Cousin Neptune
And of course
Earth
And it’s most precious resource
Money
The hunger
Oh the hunger
This stomach
Will be the death of me
Soon as I’ve had my fill
And keep eating
Soon as I’ve cleared my plate
I still hunger
Salivate over all
That could be here
Just within reach
Of my lips
I bite gentle
And it melts in my mouth
So tender
So savory
I could eat my weight
I could eat it all
But then i would
Inevitably starve
So a small morsel
For today
For this week
That’s what I’ve been rationed
And by god I’ll make it last
Entropy reversed
Reserved for times like this
When the weather is weird
Unstrike the match
Uncrack the egg
Unbecome yourself
The river flows backwards
When it reaches the cliff
It falls into the sky
Canoe it into outer space
Where fast approaching
Is all the matter blasted out
From the big bad bang
And the littler ones too
It all squishes together
Like it was at first
But now it’s alive
Awake and vengeful
All things destroyed
By will or ignorance
Will be undestroyed
By this backwards force
Burning cold
Rising fall
Centrifugal
Centripetal
It’s centered
Here in this placetime
Swinging outwards
Smashing it together
You are your father now
And he is his
You are your mother now
And she is hers
Division multiplied
Across shattered surface
The mother of water is air
The mother of stone is fire
Great great grandma hydrogen
All nails unhammered
All stones unturned
All ships unsunk
All minds unempty
All stomachs unfull
Bullets unshot
Blood unbled
Something loving
Some living breathing thing
Like a creator god
Shapes the world
It destroys destruction
It eats heat and light and energy
It is small and magnetic
In your blood
Dendrites and forests
You and universe
Fused together
As one big thing
Which stomps and wrecks
And burns and floods
And leaves the planet healthy
It is deterministic
Gravity’s arc always pulled
All the pieces into place
Here so that it would be
The great and horrible
Big and bad
Mean and green
Rough and tough
Hot and cold
Big and small
Near and far
Wet and dry
Past and present
New and ancient
Dull and shining
Full and empty
Real and surreal
Fact and fiction
Laminar turbulent
Problem solution
Question answer
Forwards backwards
Inside outside
Undestroyer
Someone hit my sister
With their car
They were driving a big truck
And smashed into the car she was in
So now
I have to destroy every car on earth
I have to smash them into dust
I have to shoot all the dust
With a gun
And a flamethrower
Then launch it into the sun
Then blow up the sun
Then create a singularity from
The blown up sun
Sucking the entire solar system
Into a black hole
Then i have to increase gravity
One trillion times
Until the entire universe is
Sucked down the spout
And then in the black hole
As a new universe is born
I will destroy it
Then i kiss my sister on her forehead
Ask her how her bruises feel
And stomp off to find the guy who was driving
What if
You came home
And mom was cooking dinner
She lifts up the pot lid
To show you
She’s cooking iPhones
Cellphones for dinner
With a microplastic garnish
Then you look up at mom
She’s a cellphone too
You go to the bathroom
Yeah don’t even ask
The toilets a phone
It has a notification
You have one unread poop
You go to wash your hands
And the sink
Has freaking emojis on it
Hot water 🤣
Cold water 🤨
You raise your gaze
To your reflection
The mirror is dark
Like some kind of
Black mirror
Like seeing yourself reflected
In the dead screen
Of one of your devices
A moment to see
How you look at the thing
That looks at you
The mirror lights up
You just got a text
It’s from yourself
It says help
I’m trapped in the phone
And phone mom
Is cooking me for dinner
You turn on do not disturb
You sit down for dinner
The table is a big cell phone
The plate is a big cell phone
You eat your dinner
Lie down in your cell phone bed
And dream of
Giant iPhones
Who keep people
In their pockets
And are hopelessly
Addicted
To the way it feels
To squeeze them
You wake up
Scary dream
Run to the bathroom
Look in the black mirror
Yep
You’re a iphone
The car of the future
Has solar powered headlights
It’s got a modular suspension
So if there’s traffic
You can rise up above it
Drive right over
All the slow people
In their antiquated cars
It has big huge fans
That blast ice cold air
So you can beat the heat
While you drive down the street
Drive the dog around the block
Drive to the park
Which is of course
A paved area where you can
Park the car
Sit there and rev the engine
For a few hours
Then drive home
Sit in the garage
And figure out where to go next
The car of the future has
Heat seeking missiles
Spikes on the front grill
It has satnav gps
Patented user interface
Screens on every surface
So you can watch movies
No matter where you’re looking
The tires are wide tread
They don’t get stuck on mud
Or cracks in the pavement
Or rubble or flesh and bone
It drives itself
Just punch in your destination
And it will plow a straight line there
Through buildings and fields
Rivers and trees
Anything audacious enough
To be in the way
The car of the future is buried
Thirty feet beneath acidic soil
Next to all of its brothers
Full of stones and dirt
Abandoned and remembered
By the heat in the air
The sour taste of the sea
Corroded and full of holes
Buried by erosion
By years and years
And years and years
Of getting around fine
Without burning dead matter
And going really fast
Sitting idle til the hill collapses
Til the valley floods
Til the river recedes
Til the plants take root
Til the fire burns through
Til the plants grow back
Til they die from drought
Until there’s nothing here
To mark the graves
Of all the cars sitting in
Permanent traffic
Beneath the ground
Where they belong
The car of the future
Waits for you
Parked in your mind
Ready to get you
To the place
We’re all going
Love from the heart
Feels like
BUMP BUMP BUMP
blood pumping
Skipping a beat
Feels like being pulled
By a string tied
To your sternum
Gently but quickly
Towards the thing
That you love
It’s intuition
Familiar instinct
Heavy and swinging
Like a pendulum
Rhythm and melody
Musical refrain
Calm steady rain
Like someone else
Declared it
And you discovered
It was true
Love from the head
Feels like
This makes sense
It all adds up
I did the math
And i love you
You and me fit
Right here where
We press together
The angle matches
Right at the corner
Where we go smooth
It just makes sense
To rest my head
This close to yours
Compatible and complimentary
Yin and Yang
Green and red
It finds you when
You start explaining
A moment together
And there’s just so much there
Love from the stomach
Feels like
Waiting for a shoe to drop
Nervous over something new
Smiling too much
Or not enough
Or not the right smile
Stomach love is early
Hungry and impatient
Selfish and indulgent
Lustful and unwise
And fun as hell
The way it crushes
Ties knots in itself
Hard to explain
Easy to understand
Missing someone
With limited information
Inferring and assuming
Tracing the outline
Where they touched you last
And wondering
When it can happen again
Fight and win
Like Mike did
Fisticuffs at the little park
Where he grew up
Fighting and winning
Losing and quitting
Hearing Flo stomp downstairs
Wearing a helmet to dinner
Poking at Barbara
Until she poked back
Then not speaking
For years
Can’t fight that one out
Not the way he wanted to
Making someone cry
Doesn’t feel half as good
As knocking their lights out
Or so I’ve heard
Not fair
Not fair not fair
Who promised fair
Who told you
That any of this was fair
Might as well
Make it worse
To the victor
Go the spoils
They say
Victor?!
That guy made Frankenstein
What the hell do you think
He’s gonna do with spoils
He’s gonna sew them together
Imbue them with life
Then get too scared
To do anything with them
Then all of our spoils
For which we toiled
Will be spoiled
Sullied and soiled
They’ll need to be boiled
Greased and oiled
Wrapped and coiled
Hung up to dry
Then we can play kickball
Whoever wins
Gets to keep them all
But victor can’t play
He’s creepy
And he’s bad at it anyway
Getting real tired
Staying up late
Staying up early
Holding the dog
Locking it outside
Having a scary dream
Where you hurt your dad
All the love in my heart
Is in one place on a map
And I’m headed there now
And I’m leaving there now
For some stupid reason
I’ve got an attitude
I see that train tracks
Frequently make straight lines
But i can’t see where it’s going
When I’m not looking
Out the window
It might start going sideways
East or west instead
That’ll make me nauseous
Sleeping and showering
In all kinds of places
Where I’ve been before
Getting dirty and clean
But my skin stays the same
If i grew a plant on my head
It might provide some shade
But I’d still have to water it
It might remind me
That I’m living too
I have roots and leaves
And if i don’t let the sun in
I’ll fucking dry up and die
I have too many coats
Stuffed in my duffel bag
They’re heavy but i need them
I prefer to travel light
Makes me feel like
I have everything i need
Like I’m home already
And all my stuff is there
Silly goose alert
WARNING
there’s a silly goose
On the loose
Loose goose
Chase him
Catch him
Hold him down
And make that goose
Be serious for once
Get real goose
Stop acting so silly
Well great we lost him
I’ll look over there
You look under there
Under where?
Underwear!
Ha got you
Oh shit he’s the goose
He’s been the goose
The whole time
Duck duck silly goose
The ugly duckling
Was a silly goose
He was so funny
That the ladies didn’t mind
That he was uglier than
A very ugly duck
Wait
Maybe he was a swan actually
Either way
He was silly
Catch that goose i say
We have no room
To sanction such tomfoolery
He must be stopped
That wild loose silly goose
There’s a guy at the station
Wearing a red shirt with a white circle
It says ‘Thing 3’
Like from Dr. Suess’ the cat in the hat
There’s an implication
That somewhere else in the world
There’s a Thing 1 and 2
But they are not here now
Was it just space that separates them
Or something more serious
Did they have a falling out
Was there violence
Was he rejected
For being the third thing
Or is he waiting here
For his family
And they’re wearing their shirts too
Unclear
But I’m here
To notice and speculate
I hope i get to see that big ass cat
The one who wears the hat
Gave my pony growth pills
Big supplements
To embiggen him
I’m gonna show
Those no good rascals
Down at the saloon
I’m gonna have the
Tallest horse in town
I’m gonna need a ladder
Just to get up on him
Feed him twenty carrots
In a single bite
Up atop my high horse
I’ll roll a cigarette
Take a long drag
Blow smoke rings
And they’ll see me saunter in
Towering above them
With their little baby horses
I’ll grin and tip my hat
Pull up front the saloon
Whistle through the swinging doors
When all the fellas come out
To see my big ass horse
I’ll swing my leg over
Leap from the back of my steed
And break both my legs
They’ll rush me to the doctor
Who will give me whiskey
And shoot me in the head
This is cowboy times
So medicine is simple
I’ll pass over into blackness
Up to that
Big horse in the sky
Cold blood
Hot blood
Regardless
He’s dead
Choked dead
By my own two
Hands
He came at me
But he didn’t mean it
Least i don’t think
But he deserved it
I knew long ago
I’d be killing him
When he looked he
Dead
In the eyes
He smiled laughed
Coughed in his hand
He was a violent man
Though not as violent
As me it would seem
He was violent of mind
Full of violent beliefs
Hatred like pus
Filling his deep pores
Kept his anger
Behind his teeth
Such that his smile
Smelled septic
Rotten air floated out
Of his living carcass
Standing proudly
On the backs of
Many poor souls
If he had his way
There’s no telling
How long they’d suffer
Before someone stood up
And choked him to death
Now there’s no wonder
No suffering at all
Save for that
Brought to me
By the purple wraith
That hangs over me now
Pain everywhere i go
Stinging smoky pain
Burned into my
Nose and eyes
Mouth and lungs
The wispy shape
Spins there across me
In this tiny shackled cell
Smiling that same rotten smile
I shout at it
And the smile grows larger
I’ve got this sick feeling
That I’m going to die
Stuck in this cell
Across from the man i killed
Maybe we both
Deserve it
Man playing guitar
Singing a song he wrote
I wanna pull him aside
And tell him
You remind me of
Someone i knew who died
Like i looked at him
Bathed in bright light
And when i close my eyes
Here you are
Burned into my eyelids
When i open my eyes
It’s just dark now
But i close them
There he is
Afterimage ghost
Singing on stage
I feel like
If i could get him to
Understand
I could talk right through him
Reach the other side
Of the dark
But i know
That isn’t how it works
He sees me staring at him
Makes a face like he knows
Tips his hat and refrains
That isn’t how it works
And it just ain’t fair
Oh shit
Here he comes
Mister good at sex
I heard he had sex
With a woman
And she liked it
I heard he has two penishes
And a vorgina
I heard he lovingly caresses
His lovers
And makes them feel safe
I heard he spits on it
Yeah i heard that too
I heard that he spits on it
I heard he made a guy cum
Just from having sex with him
I heard he can make you horny
Just by getting you naked
And kissing you
I heard he’s hot
Under all those clothes
I heard that body is crazy
I heard he does butt stuff
I heard he does hand stuff
I heard he does sex stuff
With all parts of his body
Oh yeah well
I heard he fucks doggy style
I heard he fucks kitty style
I heard he fucks monkey style
I heard he fucks fish style
I heard he fucks regular style
I heard he fucked your mom
And she liked it
I heard he fucked your dad
And it changed him
I heard he masturbates
No hands no feet
No shirt no shoes no service
I heard he gives road head
While he’s driving
I heard he had sex in a plane
I heard he had sex with a plane
I heard his thing is big
And it has a good shape
I heard he says BAZINGA
When he busts
I heard-
What did you say?
I said he says BAZINGA when he busts
That can’t be right
I’m not saying it’s right
It’s just what i heard
You heard that this guy
Mr Good at Sex
Sexual guy
Guy of many many
Sexual encounters and exploits
You heard that
When he cums
He says BAZINGA
Like Sheldon
Off of Bing Bang Theory?
Yeah somebody told me that
No way that’s fucking crazy
You made that shit up
I’m just telling you what i heard
And what i heard
Was BAZINGA
Just joined a new guild
They said i could end up
With a lot of treasure
If i play my cards right
They set me up with
A group of travelers
There’s seven of us now
Three of them
Have the same name
One is big and jolly
The other is medium and mean
The third doesn’t hang around much
But he’s tall and skinny and quiet
They are the oldest of the group
Sometimes they stand close
And bicker
And they look like
A three headed man
They handle the gold
And precious gems
The next eldest
Is younger than them by decades
Our de-facto leader
He is charming and hard working
With an underlying nervousness
That reveals his fear
That everything may fall apart
He keeps the group together
He makes the plans
Deals with quest givers
His right hand man
Is the newest to the group
Besides me
He’s got the coolest armor
He’s the guy we put up front
When we think we’re gonna fight
He’s quick witted and ambitious
Always playing tricks making jokes
But when he gets serious
You know it’s serious
Then we have our map guy
He’s the map guy
He has the map
And he charts the roads
Gets us to our destination
He never stops talking
Goes on long-winded tangents
About which king commissioned
This road to be built
Or who is the leading contender
In the jousting tourney this week
Sometimes we smack his helmet
So it rings around his head
And that shuts him up
For a minute or two
Lastly there’s me
I’m still finding my place
They’re tussling my hair
Calling me boy
Calling me lad
Giving me advice
On which weapons to use
And what skills i should learn
I write in my journal
After we’ve made camp for the night
About the journey we’ve made
I’m trying to learn some spells
But I’m not good at them
So i haven’t told anyone yet
But i think this group
Could use a mage
I must…
Make a website
I must make my own website
A website just for me
And i will
Stay tooned
Single ladies of the world…
I am MARRIED!
(But i CHEAT!!)
CALL ME!!!!!!!
You can kill a plant
Easy
By not giving it water
And that actually feels better
Forgetful and neglectful
Than the alternative
Of over watering
Trying so hard
To get this plant
Everything it needs
Coming on too strong
Clingy and overbearing
That’s how you kill a plant
And it ruins you
It’s your fault
For not restraining
Overindulgence
Look at the wet soil
Knowing you flooded it
Pull the drowned weeds
Replant them in the sun
They just might recover
But you gotta be more careful
Lately I’ve been feeling
Like everything is fine
Which has me really worried
What if I’m wrong
And i felt good
For no reason
Maybe i should panic
I should probably panic
It would probabaly be good
If i started to panic
Doesn’t matter why
Just do it
Quick
Before anyone notices
I’m chilling
I’m smoking that shit
That scared scarecrow
I’m smoking that shit
That made Bane put on the mask
I’m smoking that shit
That broke Batman’s back
I’m smoking that shit
That made joker laugh
I’m smoking that shit
That made jeepers creepers
I’m smoking that shit
Like zoinks scoob
I’m smoking that shit
Like jinkies
I’m smoking that shit
Made me split up
Look for clues
I’m smoking that shit
Like old man Jenkins
I’m smoking that shit
Made me remember
All my worries
I made up and forgot
I’m smoking that shit
Hurt my lungs
I’m smoking that shit
Smell bad
I’m smoking that shit
Make me hungry
I’m smoking that shit
Bad thoughtful
I’m smoking that shit
Makes me smoke more shit
I’m smoking that shit
That hurts
I’m smoking that shit
That hurts so bad
I’m smoking that shit
That i don’t even want
Long time pooper
First time scooper
Save a cow
Milk a horseboy
I’m bringing colors back
Changing everything about my life
Because i met a girl with opinions
Just ate a cheez it
It’s doing crazy things to me
My uncle cro magnon
Turns out he’s from ice times
Got frozen up
Til meemaw melted him
Now the way he
Bangs on rocks and grunts
It makes more sense now
I took him to the grocery store
And Sal impractical jokers was there
He had a bag over his head
He was suffocating
Q had to come over
And poke a hole in the bag
So he could breathe
Sal was tonight’s big loser
I got so caught up in the antics
I lost sight of Uncle
I found him in the freezer aisle
His protruded brow against the glass
Pawing at the frozen meats
He points at a large steak
Pounds his chest
He points to the steak
Then points back to himself
I open the freezer door
And he climbs in
He pushes the meat aside
And pulls the door shut
He looks at me
With sorrow in his eyes
Presses a hand over his heart
Then he gets frozen solid again
He wasn’t ready
For the way that things are now
He’s going to give it more time
Maybe when the freezer kicks off
And he thaws back out again
He will understand
What kind of world he’s in
Word don’t mean anything stupid
I got yelled at in a dream
Cuz i didn’t do my homework
And i didn’t rememorize
The right phrase to say
Whar they pointed at
The thing it was called
But i knew who it was
Just not the word
I threw a desk
And pencils everywhere
They made the sound
That many pencils make
Clattering to the floor ground
Kalacalkalankalananlkang
I woke up
Then i went back into the dream
To give them a peace
Of my mind
Spee language follows meaning
Like a scared little dog
Not the other way
Like a mischievous little dog
Guys like bill shake spear
Just made words up
New sflash jack ass
All words got made up
That’s how we know them now
So if i call it the wrong thing
Actually i didn’t
Actually I’m discovering language
Every minute i talk
I’m creating new words
I can’t think of a good one
Not right now
They smeared at me blankly
Then I cruck the door
Then i greap down the hall
All these gouse i seen before
I didn’t even bo my honework
Suod po but bouwers
Chae jha
Wake up nicely
Xhep it’s tuesday
It was only just a dream babe
Not real, just true
I’m from all over
Don’t you know by now
There’s something to behold
Behold it
Breathe it in
I’m ten feet tall
You’re shorter than that
You only seem to drag me down
When I’ve risen above
Next time you close your eyes
Listen to my movement
Couple things i didn’t say
Spiteful but real
I think your pictures ugly
And i didn’t like the song
Really in the first place
Before it went sour
Shuddered and fragmented
Glitched out and broke
Before that i thought
I don’t even like this
I’m a simple lunch guy
Ha haha ha
As long as you’re paying
Hahahahha
You’ve seen office space right
Mandatory viewing
If you’re an office worker
You have 45 regular hours
For last week
Should 5 of those be OVT?
There he is!
Good morning mister
Oh fucking Christ
I don’t want to be here
I don’t want to be here
I don’t want to be here
I don’t want to be here
But i am
Here
In the office
Chatting idly
Counting every second
Until i can leave
And breathe again
Mondays huh
Got a case of the Mondays
Uh oh
Looks like we’ve
Got a case of the Mondays
Over here
Am i right
Live and die
And live again
All people come back
You just keep coming back
Until you’ve learned the lesson
Then once you’ve learnt it
You learn it again
A hundred times
Until you know by heart
What it is to be human
Then you die again
When you come back
This time
You’re some animal now
You could be a fly
And fly around
You could be a bird
And fly around
You could be a fish
And swim around
You could be a mole
Dig underground
You could be a bear
Eat berries
You could be a dog
Or a frog
Or a worm
Or snake
Or a turtle
Or a ferret
Or a fox
Or a lobster
There are many animals
But one of them
Will be you
Then you live this life
A thousand times
Some lives are painful
Some are short and sweet
Some are long and fulfilling
You repeat until you’re ready
Again again over over
Then you come back
As a mushroom
Every soul
Gets a turn as a mushroom
That’s just how it goes
What happens next
Is mushroom
Mushroom is cool
You will like it
Then you live a thousand years
Of being a plant
Blade of grass
Tall tree
Flowers
You know
Plants
They grow all over
Once that’s done
You become a germ
For a long time
Until something changes
Then what you are
Is just a drop of water
For a billion years
Or more
You fall
Pool
Evaporate
Fall pool
And they drink you
Sweat and piss you out
Into roots
Into clouds
Into oceans
Into rivers
You go all over
Until the sun swallows the earth
And then
You’re just energy
Burning
Expanding
Dissipating
And then you
Finally
Get to rest
Forever
Back on my bike
New me new bike
Same feeling
I can go fast enough
That it feels good
Just moving
It’s hot
When i sweat
And she thinks so too
The sun grins at me
Obliged i return
The biggest grin
I can manage
Without looking false
I can get anywhere i need
I don’t even have to drive
There’s a place for me
A lane here
Where I’m expected
No one runs me over
Which is great
I hate being run over
The earth has blood
I drink it
Stained deep red black
Around my hands and mouth
It changes me
Makes me feral
Makes me stand and declare
I own this place
It belongs to me
The original sin
Invention of property
Build a wall around
Where I’ve tapped the vein
Where the earth bleeds out
This is my blood
You cannot have it
Not for free
Not like me
I drink deep
Gorge myself turbid gluttonous
Sloshing back and forth
Atop my very tall wall
Lined with razor barbed wire
Which slices any thirsty fool
Who dares try to climb
Their blood runs down the wall
Soaking into the earth
Diluting the pure bloodwell
I drink it all
Tap it dry
Suck from the dry soil
Nothing remains
No blood no water
My stomach bulges hurting
I trip and fall
Far down from the wall
I accelerate
Hit the ground hard and pop
Shedding blood all over
Everything bright red
The last sight i see
Red everywhere
And it all belongs to me
I can talk to animals
Like this
Hello bird
Hello squirrel
Hello worm
Hello rat
Hello doggy
Hello cat
Good morning to you all
They don’t call back
But they hear me
Slowly but surely
They learn the language
Even if they don’t understand
They know the words
Hello good morning
Farewell goodnight
I don’t need them to
But maybe someday
They’ll say something back
I sat on gum
It got stuck to my shorts
Now i have gum on my shorts
And i don’t like it at all
I’m sticking everywhere i sit
And feeling gross about it
Now everyone who
Looks at my butt
Will know
How i sat in gum
She’s walking down the path
With a selfie stick
They’re crossing over the bridge
Wielding a canon eos t5 rebel
He’s taking a video
Of his family walking
On the beach
She’s stopped in her tracks
To take out her phone
And point it upwards
Capture something she saw
And save it for later
That’s the beautiful thing
When you see someone with a camera
You can tell they’re looking at the world
And they’re seeing something
That they want to share
Or save forever
I wish i could see
What they’re seeing
But I’m happy just knowing
That they’re seeing something good
The mind of a seagull
Says squawk squawk squawk
It sees everything in yellow
Shimmering slivers of gold
Glinting off the sea at sunset
It sees the sand depressed
Around each webbed foot
Flicks it’s head around
Seeking discarded dinner
At the feet of all the people
It pecks at a pebble
Spits it out
And pecks again
Just in case
It’s wide eyes stare at me
Until i feel i have to look away
There’s something behind
Those yellow eyes
I just don’t know what it is
The leash loose
Drags on the pavement
She’s slowing her pace
And he looks down at her
He smiles and stops
Reaches down to scratch
Her side and then
Between her ears
She looks up grinning
They do this every day
He starts walking again
And she does too
A little quicker than before
Today i woke up
With someone in my bed
I kissed her before she went to work
Then i shuffled to the kitchen
Poured myself a glass of water
Sat down in the living room
I put together two shelves
That i had bought from Lowe’s on Thursday
Then i showered
I called my dad
Just to talk
And check on him
I think he’s doing okay
I got on my new bike
Which i got from a pawn shop
So i could ride to guitar center
And get new strings
For my new 12-string guitar
Which i also got from the pawn shop
I got a little turned around
But it was a nice ride
The guitar guy was helpful
I felt satisfied with my trip
So i tied the shopping bag
To the bar on my bike
And i pedaled to the lake
I rode 5 miles along the shore
Smiling the whole way
Then i turned on a street
Which has the same name
As my boss
And i rode it back home
Where i sat on the couch
And struggled to restring my guitar
Luckily i had extras
Because i snapped three in the process
It sounds alright
I’m excited to practice more
Then i watched a bunch of Star Trek
And now I’m bored
And that’s what i did today
Yo, listen up here's a story
About a little guy
That lives in a green world
And all day and all night
And everything he sees is just green
Like him inside and outside
Green his house
With a green little window
And a green corvette
And everything is green for him
And himself and everybody around
Cause he ain't got nobody to listen to
I'm green
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
I'm green
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
I have a green house
With a green window
Green is the color of all that I wear
Green are the streets
And all the trees are too
I have a girlfriend and she is so green
Green are the people here
That walk around
Green like my corvette its in and outside
Green are the words I say
And what I think
Green are the feelings
That live inside me
There’s a fly in my home
I want it gone
It’s buzzing around
Like it owns the place
Boy does that piss me off
But it’s too quick
For me to catch him
Or squish him
So I’m running around
Like Walter white
Going crazy about this fly
I need to fold my laundry
But i can’t take my eyes
Off the black splotch
On the ceiling
Pulsing
Beating
Taunting me
Fuck you
Fucking
Stupid ass fly
My sister has a beautiful voice
I get tears in my eyes
When i hear her sing
I love her more than anything
She makes me feel safe
She is so much of me
When i feel small
She reminds me i am not
She brightens the world
I am so proud of her
She’s growing too
Just like me
Lately when i talk to her
She makes it hard
Not to love myself
Im just trying
To return the favor
I am walking calmly
At a steady pace
Light and soft
Gentle and slow
From your spot
Out the window
Of a moving train
You may not see
I’m moving
But gradually
Deliberately
I will reach my
Destination
I get quiet
My eyes dart around
Looking for a problem
Because i like to
Problems are fun for me
Gives me direction
Even if i can’t solve it
I can try to
Or just imagine
What it would take to fix it
Some problems don’t need fixing
Some problems aren’t problems
But
That’s not really the point
The point is that i like it
It makes me feel of use
Like I’m making something better
It’s a selfish thing
It makes me happy
So I’ve started making problems
Everywhere i go
Just so i can fix them
Or fixate on them
That’s what greases my gears
That’s what floats my boat
If you don’t like it
Well
Then we’re gonna have a problem
A skull inside my skull
A brain inside my brain
I feel it when i touch it
Every single day
I feel like such a mutant
Like something really strange
A wasp stuck in the window
Buzzing loud all day
Past and present-future
Figures made of clay
Chop them into pieces
Put them on a plate
Cook them up for dinner
Satiate the pain
Change the channel quickly
Before it loses shape
Close your eyes and whisper
Make it go away
My pikmin
My brave little guys
They trusted me
They fucking trusted me
And i led them astray
Walked into the clearing
Then a big ass metal spider
Came down started stomping
Ten fifteen thirty-five dead
In an instant
But that wasn’t the end
By the time that spider fell
A hundred brave souls perished
Had i been more careful
More prepared more aware
We still would have lost some
But not on this scale
I don’t think I’ll ever be
The same as i used to be
I look into their little blank eyes
I know they know i failed them
I can’t play that game
For at least a few days now
Because i let those fuckers down
Scooby doo 2002
Groundbreaking digital dog
Leaning up against you
Making you laugh
With your whole body
He’s playing the hits
He’s saying Ruh Roh Raggy
He’s laughing Rhehehehehee
Just like it used to be
When you watched him before
In cartoons on tv
Only he’s real now
He’s CGI
But that’s real enough
You can only tell
When the lighting is weird
They made him in 2002 after all
He’s younger than you are
He’s wearing a dress on the plane
But she still thinks he’s a dog
No dogs allowed on spooky air
Well you think that’s bullshit
You want him close
Even if you’re sitting with Fred
You wouldn’t leave him behind
This is Mr. Doo we’re talking about
That’s Scooby Doo, not Melvin
Who are you
To deprive him of a scooby snack
There's a hundred doctors
in lab coats with goggles
they are gathered around
beakers and test tubes
writing equations and formulas
to try and get to the bottom
of the essential questions
which came first
the chicken or the egg?
if it was the chicken
how did it get born?
if it was the egg
who the hell laid it?
did people breed dogs
to be really itchy
because we liked petting them?
or did dogs breed people
to like scratching
because they were so damn itchy?
why can you kiss yourself in the mirror
but only on the lips?
what's the deal with airline food?
why do they call it an oven
when you of in the cold food
of out hot eat the food?
if I'm writing this
and you're reading it
who's driving the car?
I’m figuring out
That i have a favorite color
After twenty four years
I’m realizing i think green is awesome
So i bought a green towel
And a green shower mat
Three green rugs
Green lights
Green pillows and blankets
Green curtains
Green shoes and shirt
I’m sitting in all the green
And it makes me feel alive
The only thing that grows
In this forest is me
Did you know the human eye
Can see the most shades of green
Out of any color
And plants didn’t use to be all green
They were purple too
Back in the day
I paint the windows green
I let mold grow in the bathroom
Grass on the floor
Vines from the ceiling
All of it’s green
And that’s your favorite color
It’s mine
But it’s yours too
This lake was carved by glaciers
A long long time ago
Scraping down the world
This shore was built from rubble
Just kind of long ago
After all the buildings burned down
They pushed them in the water
And put sand on top
There’s not sharks in the water
She assures me smiling
But i tell her I’m still scared
What happened to all the salt
They took it out
Because it tasted bad
The waves are big
I’ve seen bigger
But still they’re big
One smacks me in the face
And i go down
When i surface there she is
Thrown into me by another wave
We linger in the sudden contact
Then we got yelled at
By a woman in a boat
For swimming too close
To each other i think
Or maybe the metal breakers
Either way it’s funny
What’s she gonna do
Stop us?
We’re gonna get out of the water
Soon we will
After a hundred foot wave
Washes us up
And we put on our dry clothes
So they can be wet too
Even as we walk away
Off the sand onto pavement
I can feel the waves
Pushing us together
Snails hatch from eggs
Then they eat the egg shell
To use the calcium
For their snail shell
Isn’t that miraculous?
If i get the chance
To come back after this
I think I’ll come as a snail
Moving air
Whisks the moisture from my skin
I am sweating doubtlessly
Under the heat of the sun
Ducks are angels
They have wings
Even the little ones
I don’t know what
It means to them
When i look them in the eye
But it means a lot to me
I feel i could step out onto
The surface of the water
And the lily pads would hold me up
I am light weightless
I have everything i need
On my person
I’m not worried for tomorrow
Because tomorrow
I will still be here
A fly lands on my arm
So i study it
Matte green with orange eyes
It rubs its rear legs together
Then returns to the air
Which blows my hair
In the same direction
As the waves and the tall plants
It feels good to be here
In the world
All the cousins of earth
Trees flowers rats bugs peoples
Would all look the same
To a space alien
Made of silicon
Or pure energy
Chain reactions of ionized gas
So when i see a goose
I’m like
Hi cousin
And the goose is like
Honk honk
And the tree is like
. . .
(That’s the sound of wood)
I whisper to the little bug
Did you know
That all of this started
From two brothers
Who were different?
That happened a lot of times
And then
One of them was me
And one of them was you
The bug makes a noise
So small i can’t even hear it
But i can tell it’s profound
I tell my cousins
Yeah i don’t know
Why I’m so fixated
On this idea
I think it could be
Because i feel so at odds
With the way people act
Like it’s only us here on earth
It feels so empty when I’m inside
And the only living things are people
Every day when i leave work
I step outside and smile
Because I’m back with all my cousins
Family reunion
I just wish they felt the same
But i get it
Everybody got that one cousin
Who commits unspeakable atrocities
Mass extinction for no damn reason
We love you but you’re crazy
We say
But the love is mostly
Out of obligation
In the words of Blade from Blade
Some motherfuckers
Are always trying to ice skate uphill
Struggling for no good reason
Piss in their face from
Pissing into the current
Razor burn from
Cutting against the grain
Going against the flow
Resisting when it’s futile
Guy on the beach
Getting slapped in the mouth
Over and over by the salty waves
He never turns and rides it in
He kicks and fights it
Swimming perpendicular to shore
While the riptide sweeps him out
He’ll drown or get eaten
By Meg from The Meg and The Meg 2
Because he’s stupid
Had he asked me
I would’ve told him
Don’t fight the wave
Don’t be acted upon by the wave
Become the wave
Be the thing that moves
Not the thing that is moved
In other words
Learn to surf
Forgive me
For the tone
Of my quiet
I’m in a place that
You’ve never been
Thinking of you
Listening to an old song
With ears unpulled unpinched
I feel good
Walking drawn to whatever
Is over there
The sign says no smoking
So i don’t
The moon is orange
And i don’t even try
To figure out why
I tried to pray today
It didn’t work
But i tried
When i saw the lightning bugs
Flashing on and off
Angels peered down at me
Or at the rabbit in the road
One of us was blessed
One of us was
Just out walking
Doc
There’s something wrong with me
When i watch a sad movie
My eyes start watering
My face starts convulsing
I shake and feel small
Lonely and sad
Can you give me something
To help
To stop this condition
Doctor
Another symptom
When i go out into the world
Something feels wrong
The world
Which is normal and ordinary
Seems cruel and unjust
Full of suffering
And this weird feeling
Sticks with me
The work I’m doing
Which is important
Feels aimless and arbitrary
I feel like I’m wasting my time
Is there a pill for this
To stop me from feeling
These unnatural ways
When i cut my skin it bleeds
When i bite my tongue it hurts
Why doctor
What is the name of this disease
Oh no
It can’t be
I’ve come down with a case
Of
Woke Mind Virus
L
Been sniffing more
Trying to get better at smelling
Sometimes i feel it’s working
Two guys sitting next to me
We’re smoking a joint
And i could tell it was weed
Just from the smell
When they got off
Another woman sat down
Got out a big tube of sanitizer
Sprayed it in her hands
And breathed in deep
I smelled that too
When the air is hot
It smells like piss under the stairs
When it rains
Or it’s going to
I can smell the smell
Of the rain or what caused it
I burn a candle
And i can tell what flavor
With only my nose
Trying to use my senses more
Might as well
I won’t have them forever
You never nose
My mom told me
When i was young
I was good at seeing patterns
I’d notice them everywhere
Call them out
Explaining them
In places she hadn’t seen them
I guess that’s my function
That’s what the brain is for
After all
It created itself because
Patterns repeat
If you can learn them
You can anticipate
What comes next
The sun rises every morning
Sets every evening
The earth spins and it revolves
Things live and grow and die
The same similar
But new
All numbers are rational
If you write down all the digits
Entropy increases
In predictable ways
It all spirals
Through space
In stripes and colors
Through time
In sequence and rhythm
I was little
Playing with blocks
And my mom believed me
When i told her
How the patterns repeated
Blue green yellow red
Now I’m less little
And she believes me
When i tell her
The patterns are repeating
I’ve noticed a trend
I’ve seen how things are
I don’t know what’s coming next
But i can anticipate it
I know that
Everything’s yellow now
And red comes next
There’s drywall in the basement
Whenever I’m feeling angry
I go and punch a hole in it
Then i look into the hole
I put my face against it
And scream
When I’m feeling happy
I punch another hole
And then a big row of holes
To make a smiley face
When I’m sad
I punch the wall a lot
One for each tear
As it leaves my eye
When I’m in love
I punch holes
In the shape of a heart
When I’m lonely
I kiss the wall
When I’m horny
I fuck the wall
When I’m tired
I sleep the wall
When I’m hungry
I eat the wall
When I’m thirsty
I drink the wall
When I’m small
I big the wall
When I’m big
I small the wall
When I’m nervous
I punch the wall
I punch the wall
I punch the wall
Any time i want to
I punch the wall
I punch the wall
If I’m feeling nothing
I go to Lowe’s
I get supplies
I patch the wall up
Then i punch a big hole in it
And start feeling again
There used to be this guy
Called play-doh
And what he did
Is he grabbed three guys
And he locked them in a cave
He lit a big fire
So they could see shadows
First they saw three figures
Guy number one said
That must be me
When i raise my arm
So does he
Guy number two said
That one is me
Look at his huge muscles
Guy number three said
Duhhhh I’m stupid
Then playdoh got creative
Started doing shadow puppets
He did a dog pretty easy
With just one hand
A frog with both hands
A bunny and a turkey
He left for a minute
To go to hobby lobby
Came back with
Paper cutouts of cars
And buildings and trees
He made a whole shadow world
He whispered
This is real
Guy number one said
This is real
Guy number two said
Yup I’m pretty sure that
This is real
Guy number three said
Duurrrrrrr
Aren’t we locked in a cave
I’m stupid by the way
Then playdoh
Hit him on the head with a rock
Killed him dead
And the other guys
Got scared of the shadow
And for some reason
Everybody thought playdoh
Was cool after this
I don’t know man
I just live here
She came over
In a snowmobile
With her new boyfriend
I couldn’t find my shoes
And my mom was yelling at me
I was yelling back
My sisters went outside
We were all going somewhere
As soon as i found my shoes
But they were getting impatient
The new boyfriend seemed nice
He said he’d warm up the car
Which he drove separately
She asked to pull the snowmobile
Into the garage
It was the same color purple
As the shutters were painted
It was pretty so we both stopped
To take a picture
I wanted to ask her what happened
Since i was the new guy
But it seemed in poor taste
I couldn’t remember
Making these plans
But I’d be damned
If i wasn’t gonna keep them
The car got stuck in the snow
The boyfriend told me something
About how my moms plants
Needed landscaping
And the shutters needed replacing
It rubbed me the wrong way
I guess he was looking for work
It seemed rude
After they left i realized
I never knew
Why that bridge burned
In the first place
Buts it’s been about a year
Guess I’ll never know
Back before they invented the sun
All the people ran around blind
Bumping into walls and stuff
They just didn’t know any better
Hadn’t thought of light quite yet
Ask your great great great great
Great great great great great great
Great great great great great great
Great great great great great great
Great great great great great great
Great great great great great great
Great great great great great great
Great great grant great great great great
Great great grandfather he’ll tell you
Bout how dark it was back then
But as soon as they invented the sun
Everyone went nuts
They were getting sunburn
They were staring at it all day long
Using magnifying glasses to kill ants
And generally just looking around
To see what stuff looked like
Because everything used to be
Black darkness shape without color
And now they had green and yellow
And other colors too such as blue
Probably more than that but
I think they invented some of them
Later after the sun wasn’t new anymore
Well pretty much nothing was the same
After they put that big fireball
Up in the sky so we could see stuff
I think i like it
But it’s weird because
People didn’t use to have it
And they got on fine
Now you don’t really have a choice
It’s up there
Whether you’re looking or not
Last winter
I was restless
So in the evening
I put on my big coat
Walked to the park
I left the path
Following my heart
To a small pond
I had been to before
There were five ducks
Swimming in cold water
Three drakes two hens
Two couples
And a single duck
The couples took turns
Dunking under water
Pecking at the bottom
While their partner
Watched their back
The single drake
Chewed at his wing
And flapped it wildly
He must have been
Injured or something
Every so often
He’d swim towards
The other ducks near shore
Swimming side by side
He’d get too close
And they’d chase him off
Again and again
He tried to get close
To one of the hens
And was chased off
To the center of the pond
Where he’d peck and flap
His injured wing
Splash water on it
As if that did anything
He was alone
But i was too
All this
Pent up rage
The angst you carry
Heavy on your shoulders
It’s got to go somewhere
When your body stops
So all your lasting feelings
Turn translucent
Float around
All your old places
Ectoplasm memories
Splattered where
You used to sit
Used to sleep
Used to ball your fist and shout
Nothing but an afterimage
An impression of what was
Stuck in a loop
Continuing your cycles
That’s the scary part
Nothings really changed
Sorry doggy
I can’t take you on a walk
I have to leave you here
Alone in the house
There’s an economy out there
That i have to contribute to
Or other men
Will commit violent acts
Against the both of us
I hope you don’t get lonely
Staring out the window
Watching the cars speed by
I’m up there in the office
Looking out the window too
Thinking of you all day
Red
Not the kind that hurts
Sunburn in the summer
Dripping chlorine
On the hardwood floor
Reach up on to the counter
Red
In red hands
Sticky on small fingers
Running down the chin
Mixing with the water
Dripping on the floor
Pink
A bit thinner
Mom raised no quitter
Leave nothing to waste
Eat it all to the green
It’s mostly water after all
White
Still chewing
Still scraping it clean
Eat it all to the green
Pitch the smile in the trash
And reach up for another
Green
Back out to the pool
Heat on little feet
Slip drop the red angle
Smash onto the ground
The ants worship the pyramid
Red
Hottest day in
One million trillion years
Is gonna be
Next Wednesday
You’ll die if you
Even think about the sun
There’s ten thousand new wars
And all of them are really really bad
All the good guys are dying
All the bad guys don’t exist
They just made a new law
Whoever smelt it dealt it
That’s legally binding
And you can get sent to
A prison on a boat in the ocean
For saying it wasn’t you
Who farted
Also all the teams lost in sports
Especially the one you root for
In other news
I’m sweating
A cicada just tried to fly into my ear
I yelped and swatted at it
Had it gotten in there
It probably would have stayed
For like five or seven years
Depending on the kind of cicada
It would have sounded like
Weeeoooweeeeoooweeeoooo
In my head every night in summer
I’d have to shrug my shoulders
And sing along with them
Weee ooo weee oooo weee ooo
Actually maybe that would rock
Come back cicada
You can go into my ear
I spoke too soon
He just started pulling
Photos up on his phone
Of girls in bikinis
And waitresses at twin peaks
This is supposed to be poems
But i gotta talk about Steve
This guy is nuts really
Ok
We went out to lunch today
And the woman we interviewed last week
Has just accepted the job
Will start on
September 11th
Yeah
So we’re having lunch
Pizza
And this topic comes up
Immediate reaction
From our friend Steve
Is
Oh boy we better read up
On that harassment training
Then we’re talking about hooters again
Obviously
They’re talking about
Girls boobs
In this pizza place
They’re talking about
How technically
Hooters is the closest restaurant
They’re saying
When they went
To celebrate Nicks engagement
That they weren’t impressed
With the boobs
Of the women there
I wonder
If i look
As pissed off as i am
I forget
Because i am blessed
With so many women in my life
And men who are normal
That many men
In this fucked up world
Really hate women
And do not view them as people
Humbling
Sobering
Well
At least come September
I won’t be alone in this office
There will be
One other person here
Who doesn’t hate women
Hopefully
Well I’ll be honest
I’m fixated on it
But i think I’m justified
And if we give it some time
I’ll be vindicated
By everything getting worse
Lucky me
There’s so much work to do
If we want to be ready
To face the consequences
Of our worst actions
But instead they keep us busy
Generating profit
It’s making me feel so sick
I wouldn’t mind
Wasting all my time
If it was wasted in the name
Of anything but the bottom line
For 10 hours a day
I dress and act
Like someone I’m not
Who cares about
Things i do not
And its wearing away at me
Its my own fault
For choosing this path
But i haven’t found
A quicker way
Of getting the money i need
This morning
Walking to the train
I saw a rat run
And hide under a traffic cone
I felt jealous
Was feeling homesick
And nobody gave me
Nothing to do today
So i went on google earth
Drove down all my old streets
Visited my friends
And some people
I don’t see anymore
They’re all here
In my computer
In the scale model
Of the world
Scaled down too
So they can fit
Somebody walked by
Asked me why
I was playing games
I said I’m not
This isn’t a game to me
When you die
If you were good
Your spirit leaves your body
You get a pair of white wings
A golden halo above your head
And this goes for all
Anything god made
If it was good
Gets to become an angel
Out from the flying saucer
Here come the
Little green men
They are holding up peace signs
They only have three fingers
But it looks like a peace sign
The government has gathered
To greet them and make contact
But the little green men
Walk right past
The secretary of space
With his hand outdrawn
Past the army guys
And the crowd of reporters
They waddle up the lawn
To the top of the hill
And they start talking
To a damn tree
These guys
These little green men
They don’t give a fuck about us
They’re hugging the tree
They’re laughing
They seem to be having
A really good time
The tree seems happy too
They take some seeds off the ground
And they hop back on the saucer
Never to be seen again
His short snout
Twitches in the air
Sniffing another fire
Still a ways off
From the edge of the village
He turns tail
Back to what he was doing
Digging a hole
Near the base of the
Rusted metal spire
Here underneath the village
There used to be
Another kingdom
With massive monuments
And indecipherable gizmos
He liked to dig them up
And take them apart
The elders warned
About the dangers of
Digging up the past
But they did not stop him
When his claws click on metal
He widens the hole
And steps back
To have a look
It was a large metal container
He had seen these before
There was one in the forest
With trees growing through it
It was larger than this one
But had the same general shape
Rectangular
Openings about halfway up
On all four sides
Sloped in the front and back
Instead of resting on the ground
It stood on four wide disks
This one was full of dirt
But the one in the forest
Had all sorts of levers and buttons
That he loved to play with
Pretend he was
One of the old ones
Operating the vessel
For some important purpose
He scrapes some loose soil
Out of the side opening
A large clump falls at his feet
He picks it up
Drags it to the river
Holds it underwater
Til he can see
What he’s holding in his hands
A skull
Large and strange
The eyes faced forward
With a large sphere behind them
It lacked any snout
The teeth extended
Straight down from the eyes
Flat on the bottom
One of the old ones
He’s never seen one before
It seems important
He scurries back to the vessel
Tosses the skull in
Covers it in about an inch of dirt
Puts a rock on top to remember
The fire is almost to the river now
After it burns through
He will come back
So he can learn more
I’m sorry
The internet messed up your head
I’m sorry
These years
Have made you strange and detached
You can’t even see
That you’re lost
Gone from what you were
Things are always changing
People too
But rarely do they
Change back
The world you live in
Isn’t even real anymore
But it feels real
To you
When we talk
We’re both just
Speaking to ideas
Not really engaging
It’s fucked up and sad
I want to bring you back
To whatever you were
Before you got fucked up
In your head
I gotta goswimming
NOW
Gotta dunk myself in water
Splish splash about
I haven’t been in a pool
Or lake or pond or river
In far too long
If i get to come back
After i die
I think I’ll come back
As some kind of water guy
There’s so many kinds of fishes
But i could do a whale or dolphin too
Or a turtle
Or one of those big ol isopods
I just like being in the water
Salt or fresh or brackish
And the oceans rising
There’s gonna be a lot of new real estate
Steve you’re a fucking loser
You don’t have much to offer
A creature of habit
With really dumb habits
You are small minded
And loud
I’m not going to hooters with you
I’m not going to hooters with you
I don’t care about baseball
And I’m not going to hooters with you
Yesterday you said
You gotta be an expert
In far left ideology
To watch any movie nowadays
And i think you’re so stupid
You’re clearly an alcoholic
Quit looking at me
Over the frames of your glasses
You square-headed fuck
I’m going to drink
All your coke in the fridge
Well
I just got my freaking blood sucked
Not good
Went to Transylvania
For a week
Mostly because
I got it mixed up
With Pencil vania
I thought the liberty bell was here
But i haven’t found it
Just a bunch of creepy castles
With gargoyles
And townsfolk who are so annoying
They kept telling me
“Beware the Wampire
He lurks in the dark
Waiting to suck you
Suck you hard
Your blood that is
From biting you
He’s old and he’s evil
And he lives around here”
I said ok whatever
Where’s the McDonald’s
I was hungry as hell
And all they had was garlic bread
No thank you
What if i meet a pretty lady
And my breath stank
Yeah so basically
I’m wandering around these
Dark dripping alleys
At twilight
Feels like I’m being watched
Followed
I tripped in a puddle
And i felt like somebody saw
I felt like they snickered
Laughed at my misfortune
I tried to stand up
And fell again
Splashing in the puddle
Then i hear footsteps
On the cobblestone
“Want some help friend?”
Deep voice
Another freaking townsfolk guy
Who the hell are you
I’m fine
I like it in this puddle
He said
“My name is Wampire
Get up out the puddle
I’m going to suck out
All your red blood”
Oh no no no
I tried to scramble away
But he just grabbed me
Strong guy
And he bit on my neck
Drank me like capri sun
Dropped my limp body
Back in the puddle
Splash
So I’m lying here
Thinking how rude he was
The sun starts rising
Ouchie ouchie
It hurts my skin
Come along friend
I have a job for you
Do you like shooting
Shooting and killing?
Well you will
I want you in my army
The war hasn’t started yet
But it helps to be ready
My thinking is
I’ll make the biggest army ever
So i can win any battle
But i only got like
Five guys tops right now
So I’m letting my dog join
We can get other animals too
Build them special guns
Helmets and bulletproof vests
I’ve been going into
My neighbors yard
And measuring his cat
Tied a BB gun to it
But the cat wouldn’t shoot
Not yet at least
I went down to the pond
Caught like fifty frogs
They’re in the bathtub now
Splashing around
But basic training starts
On Monday
Gonna make them do push ups
Gonna shave their frog heads
Crew cut
Gonna teach them to kill
I went to the zoo
And i tried to get a tiger
But the zookeeper got mad
Then i asked if she
Wanted to join my army
And i got kicked out
That’s okay i can probably
Just work with the frogs
For now
Unless you want to join
Yeah i was lying about
The five guys earlier
Basically it’s me right now
Plus my dog
Plus the frogs i caught
But i can tell
This army is going to be great
We’re going to win the war
Once we’ve started it
Waking up easier lately
At a brand new time
So i can
See the soft morning light
Walk through the alley
See a couple rats scurry
Cross the street without looking
Catch an early train
Ride in the quiet
Walk up the sidewalk
See the pillbugs
The roly-polies rolling
Scan in the complex
Slide in the elevator
Unlock the door
Sit in the office
For an hour
Before anyone disturbs me
I go to bed early now
But i like it
Crack open a can of beans
Stare into the flame
Flickering into the dark blue
Starry sky
Feel the heat on the heel
Of those worn down boots
Haven’t spoken to another
Person in days now
Talked to the dog
The horse
The flame
The sky
The road
But none of them talk back
So listen now
To the crackling wood
Insects chirping in the brush
Leaves fluttering
In the soft but constant breeze
An owl
Far away a stream running
The dog sighs
The log crumbles
Scoop out some beans
Swallow
And rest
Long bearded men
Seldom share their secrets
But if you sneak around
Tip toe through the tower
You will hear them whisper
To eachother and themselves
Wise lessons learned
In the amount of time
It took for them
To grow those beards so long
They mutter incantations
Scratch notes on parchment paper
Brew elixirs and potions
Transform and transmute
They pull on long robes
With nothing underneath
Dance to silence
Close their eyes and dream
They revere all things
Treat even stones with respect
As if all things are sacred
Substance of the world
If they catch you
Sneaking around
Trying on their whimsical hats
Oh boy
They will grab you by your ear
And drag you out
Kick you on your bottom
And say
Begone with you scamp
You will go flying
Tumble down the hill
And land in a puddle
Part your muddy hair and look back
And the wizards tower will be gone
I try not to apologize
When i don’t need to
Apologize
But i really am sorry
Such a sorry piece of work
It’s hard for me to
Approximate
Another point of view
But all the time im trying
I just miss things
Im forgetful
Self absorbed
And unfortunately
The only person I’ve ever been
Is the one i am now
If I acted wrong
I just wish you’d say so
So i could pull out
My biggest apology
But being sorry
Hardly ever helps
So i open the windows
Unlatch the door
I hope you can hear me singing
Through the holes in the screen
Im trying to be forthright
It may not seem so
With the door still closed
But this is
As open as I’ve ever been
I’m warming up to more
But this is new for me
I think
Though I’m not certain
That we are all new to this
So I’m singing
To try and understand
The ash grows long
Likely from humidity
Water in the air
But i attributed it
To my current state of mind
I never wanted to smoke before
But i do now
I’ve got shit to think about
I’ve got filthy air to breathe
It makes me look cool
More than that
It makes me feel cool
I hurt myself all the time
With little consequence
This is one of the fun ways
I give it a light tap
The ash falls
I remember thinking
I’m never gonna smoke
Here i am
Smoking
And feeling good about it
It’s funny i think
I have a good sense of humor
About this kind of thing
I love to laugh
And i cherish being wrong
Someday i won’t smoke anymore
But I’ll have this memory
To soothe me
When my mind is racing
And it is hard to breathe
One at a time
In and out
I’m breathing still
Despite my efforts
There used to be
Other people
That walked among us
We saw them
In the fields
The forests
The caves
They were simple
Like us
They hunted
Ate plants
Painted in
The flickering light
Animals they knew
Perhaps they sung
Perhaps they cried
Do you know what happened?
Why there’s only
One kind of human
Today?
There are several theories
And we can’t know for sure
It was so long ago
But it’s likely
That we killed them
All of them
Some became
A part of us
And the rest
We killed
Genocide
By bow and arrow
There were other factors
Disease and volcanos
But within a thousand years
The Neanderthals were gone
Extinct
I worry
That this is our nature
A force of extinction
A race of death
It seems we just can’t help
Destroying
Killing
Extinguishing
We are the driving force
Of the planets
Newest mass extinction
Regardless of our survival
This will be our legacy
It is frightening
It is uncomfortable
To be human
Catalyst of destruction
I always like starting over
I’ve played the first couple hours
Of my favorite video games
A million times
I love to start fresh
I’ve never beaten a Pokémon game
I love a blank page
Full of opportunity
Ready for ideas
Words and drawings
Until you touch it
It contains everything
And once you’ve
Tarnished that
You can flip the page
And begin again
I think that’s why the earth
Spins around the sun
We all love cycles
It’s normal
To start over again
In the same place
Wipe the chalkboard clean
Spit on the dust
And try again