Betrayal as old as time Songs that make boys rhyme Those bitter, sour cries When you find that Disney lies You were my princess, could have been my queen But that cloud covered castle was a poison apple dream So sleep (sleep) beauty, forever I never want to talk to…
Poetry
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Death and Summer Vacation
I: Church Lied: Hell is an ’87 Suburban merged with Arizona summer. Brimstone air, tar for seats. My own personal demon, my sister, Fangs with braces, an inhuman scream The guide said is was over a mile deep. Carved over millions of years by one nagging river. I wonder about…
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She Needed the Voice of God
Zipporah with a zippo trying forever to spark the dried brush of a man. An Egyptian man, the kind with connections. How can her meager mounds compare with the pyramids? Her eye lashes match the great palms of the Nile? Her floods aren’t as deep and her hands are more…
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Little Things
A book of metal binding Holds three pictures, sometimes six All the faces smiling They didn’t live through this The edges, they are blackened From the smoke, not from the heat These are the survivors of the fire of 16th street My mother and my father In black tux and…
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What to do with you?
The chill is drawn Around him like a swimming pool Feet first, then straight to spine A late March snowstorm Drip plopping to the roads Rain or Snow? Happy or leftover Chinese? Left in the fridge, congealed. Complacent in its grease.
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Twitching
My father was always a fan of wall socket justice The way to live was to stick a penny in and twitch a little Shards of cookie jar couldn’t break his smile over my mastery of the kitchen chair, a bucket and a stick “Need a longer stick.” He laughed…
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Till the Tide Comes
Indifference wears at a good man More than just the waves that crash upon him but the creatures each leaves behind the crawling burrowing things that crack and cleave – So soon What once a stalwart stone is someone else’s sandcastle.
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The Ride
I am a gear stick, a little bit Rhythm stopped, I misstepped. Time slows, I breathe harder, farther till I’m halfway home I’m a chain slide, a little lie Balance kept, I survived. Times stops, and I’m laughing Having to despite the tearing I’m a hill coaster, a little older…
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The Fall of Rome
Say you love me like laugh lines on a paper map leading nowhere but your eyes Are cold like lead and time They corrupt the empire we’ve built Love me like violence Oppressive and sharp Pierce me like the criminals and hang me for the birds To tear apart my…
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Monkeys with Knives
Two circling beasts armed to the teeth Praying not to hurt the other. Misquoting Nietzsche love is madness Engarde! A lunge for the jugular. Dodged! And missed and spun and nicked And bleeding Only a flesh wound Let it, please god, be only the type that leaves no scar Like…