She Sweeps the Floor

Her mind is an attic

where bats have built a home

her hands have no jewelry

the jewels are long gone

She sweeps the floor

to rid this home of memories

that hide there like cobwebs

in every corner

Bare feet slide slow

on familiar hardwood floor

no visitors come to see her

anymore.

So she thinks about things

like how deep is the sea and what all lives there

way down

underneath

in the deep.

She mourns the deaths

of lives she has known

by lighting white candles

and sometimes

but not often

she weeps

as she waits

for someone to come

or for her time

to go

home

help

just something

anything

hooray the blues of everyone

let's talk about
"just let me take off my signature hat"
okay?

because i, too, wore a dumb hat
every day for a whole year

"just let me take off my signature hat"
is different depending on who says it

when i say
"just let me take off my signature hat"
it is code for:
i understand you even though i am not you
i know you even though not it's not true
i was a teenager too
and i know how weird it feels to be alone
there is a shield that surrounds a strong body of independence
which, cultivated from heartbreak and longing, is hard to let down
like a forcefield, or a mycenaecan barrier,
which leaves the front covered but the back unguarded
and every bad thing that has ever happened to you
has happened to me, too
for in poetry, everything is eternal
and after the first time i kissed a girl i actually felt kind of weird
even though it was awesome, i didn't brag about it
i was at summer camp and i had to go into the bathroom stall to be alone
and i didn't understand why
and i still don't, but maybe shields down is hard
but maybe the shield gets heavy after a while
and sure sometimes i'm embarrassed for being a teenager
but i know you are too and that makes me less so
you could cry in public and create world peace
i don't need to try on your hat because i have worn it
i would take my hat off to you
if respect could mean pathos
there is a code of structure and discipline
control over all other variables
which hides a deep feeling of rudderlessness
and your melons

when you say
"just let me take off my signature hat"
it is code for:
i,
oh,
well,
really,
i don't really,
i don't actually know

You Get

I give up what is bitter

for some Technicolor dreams:

            (nearly everyone alive again

A three-needled syringe

loaded with insulin and serums:

one gilds the reptile’s neck

one tattoos eternal youth

            (from the inside,

Give Me Control Moments

Once I put out a fire in a toaster.
I don't know, though, how to act.
Donovan the stevedore told me

I had to get rid of fear, and I'm still
trying to hear him. The trouble
is that I forget, exactly, what he said.

I keep feeling like I'm in some
kind of trouble at home, and
I keep apologizing in bed.

Precy

Don’t handle fruit
until you know what’s good for it:
knives, or your mouth.
Otherwise only compost will suit it.

And further: don’t look at the father yet,
when you’ve just met him.
Focus on the suitor, or boy.
He’s got a melting disposition,

he keeps fading into fathers.
Don’t let him: hold him.

ʞɹoq ʇıɹıds

where does THE SPARK come from?

ume vinegar

sunshine

raking wet mulch

where does THE SPARK go?

Quality Food Center

facebook

three holes

could I ever even satiate

that yearning for affirma(ffec)tion

oh I can pile it, back and forth- but I guess these days you've gotta start.

I will pet any head and tell it how wonderful you are,

every day until you're nauseous.

and still I'd believe it,

and still, tell me more

and still let me say it!!

I have tested my reserves.

What it has to amount to is

mom peering through the crack before she swung the door open.

this is a good thing, right?

these are dirty times for well-planted children.

hey, complicity.

we're all fucked up no blame.

though brain is whirring, body slow.

Some people are mutators, they loose weight and change their clothes.

I look the same since I was eight,

and my clothes still fit.

you get the idea.

this same fluffy brown newborn hair up here.

only as of last year some time, those clothes are too big.

I have four of my braids in a box in my attic.

the two on top: two years ago so I'd have less hair for car camping.

the two underneath... oh fuck, lets not go there any more.

if everything is actually patterning, then it's okay.

it's just every other february. okay?

I move slow but it still feels big.

two braids, two years, four years, three holes?

Moon Swoon

Locked in the moon swoon,

Fumes fuse blooms and

Quiet avenue tombs

Take the looming cruise

And glue the domes

Of a lingering groom

To the low flowing

Sense of doom

You thought you had left

By comb in your room

Or swept up with the

Crumbs by your broom.

Dumb Poem.

(Pronounced "Doom Poom.")

INDIAN LAKE

I went to the doctor. I heard through the walls codeine in the military. There was asthma and obesity on the walls. There were breast exams and line drawn diagrams of everyday stuff.

The doctor had wide arms and thin wrists and a gold watch.

I went to the dump. Ladies were ashamed to be rummaging through like that. I had to prove I was their comrade. I was their comrade.

A toothless man said THEY’LL BE CLOSING UP SOON when what he
meant was I”LL be closing up NOW.

But he was smiling and sunlight was rambling
all over the place.

I left the dump and got into my car to drive away. I passed through town where everything was closed.

My car inched over the yellow line. The trees kept changing and I

kept creeping

towards.

Der Wassermann und seine Magie

I build the baths,

and so they come,

The rams, bulls,

twins, crabs,

lions, maidens,

scales, scorpions,

archers, goats,

and fish.