A red sky
Bright in the center
silhouette arms
In the foreground
reaching for one another
Or, no wait
They already have hold of each other
No,
One has hold of the other
Yeah,
One has the other by the wrist,
trying to break it,
trying to tear the skin off,
get at the meat and tendons,
to tear them apart and
make it useless

But they're only shadow
after all
The clawing arm can't
keep up with
it's own violence
They lose their forms
and drift upwards
same as all smoke

It's still red
but in a kaleidoscope way
All swirls and no form
Oh, maybe that's a bird?
Yes, a vulture I think
and it's still red

It rained heavy
earlier

Now it's dark
and all the frogs are cheering
and all the dragonflies are
dead on the ground

My nightmare follows me as I wake up
A ghost and a mechanical spider
Bleed from my head
And spill into my bedroom
I breathe them back into me
Like cigarette smoke

A cracked skull
Perfect for self pity
A phantom limb
For shooting up morphine
Or feigned humility

Liar
Why shouldn't I lie?
What would he think?
Why should I be sober?
Okay

Okay, yeah

It's not
So bad

There are
Compromises

Buzzing around town
Nothing to say
But talking

California air pushes me
around state street
The shops all look the same
Cold sea and cool breezes

A heated pool on the mountain side
My daughter laughing in it
Laughing along with her

She can't swim so I hold her
Or she's sixteen and smoking **** with her friends
Or She's older than I am right now
living anywhere but Florida
I hope I see her,
Whenever


Wet Florida air
forcing its way
down my throat
coating me inside
wrapping around
to make me smaller

She lives in it too
and I hope it doesn't cause any lasting damage

Emma,
Go north till you realize how pretty it is
then stand upside down
and purge your lungs of this
****** place

the difference is
the difference
between clean rooms
and a stained carpet;
wine stains and blood spatter,
leftovers
between swimming
and the view of the ocean
from 35 thousand feet in the air,
the sun highlighting the currents
like the pattern of a snake
the difference is
between us,
between Florida winters
and the Cold

Walking with the nosebleeds
everyone screams the same thing,
"I don't know what we should do"

Pack your bags, to stay at home
Come outside, it's cool
Flesh talks at the freeway
Pickup games of basketball
"I don't care where we go"

Striped sun burns pale skin
Bugs flit into windowshields
Great gods, the violent ones
Dogs growl on the sidewalk
No one can say anything,
least of all, me and you
"I'm not sure where we go from here"

Don't know how to get there,
cracks line all the parkways
Diving off from upside down
Summer stroked and back logged
Gaining weight with my mouth shut
Early morning break downs
Ohms and outs on the low down
Curly hair wearing glasses
Cut out and bob toothed
"*******," is what she said

Thanks for that, gray green girl
"Impossible," that's what I say

She looks like a bike worn down
I guess that's what it's there for
More days to hit somewhere
Gut punch in the tree house

Fractured bone in my iced tea
A song looped in the land line
Sleepy headed conspiracies

Nodding out to the melodies
Lucid dreams beget nightmares