collapsing in on myself like a dying star
in the middle of the floor of some bar
on an idle Tuesday

I've already lost the keys to my car
and I've got a burn on my arm from a cigar
it feels like doomsday

don't know where love or life are
I just know I've seen them from afar
maybe they'll visit in May

actually I've run out of poems
and a pen is no longer my totem
as I wander my dreams

I'm trying to think less material
but I can't distinguish here from the ethereal
for reality's tearing at the seams

What about a dream itself
I know the weight of them so well
I guess, maybe, others will too, that means

I guess I'll stay here forever
whether I be real wherever and whenever
in the upside downs and in betweens

Hemingway might have had style
but I have finesse
better than hanging
I'd leave rope in suspense

******* a sword
I'd give an oncoming train a kiss
use a blindfold as I'm crossing the street
death is an eternal bliss

toy with auto-asphyxiation
but kick away the stool
tie my arms and legs to the bedpost
and jump in a pool

and he called her the ocean
because he'd drowned in her eyes
and been lost in her smile
shed tears in the waves of her hair

and he called her an omen
because she burns bright streaking in the skies
racking up her air miles
a comet dashing/blitzing without care

and he called her a wave
because they come hand in hand with goodbyes
but she left him with neither
on the outgoing tide

I put my hand on my heart
and promised my love
because my pockets were full

and all I can think of is sad things about wood
about how from child to adulthood
it's stuck where its put
and stood where it stood
I wonder if wood would avert its eyes if it could

soaking up the blood of Hemingway's brain
and staring into the grieving eyes of bed ridden Twain
unable to scream at the Adam and Eve, twain
as they fruitfully leapt into the mortal plane

does it retain in its rings and grains
(more than brick walls and marble veins)
memories of plague strains and reining Charlemagnes

do they like their scars and bloodied stains
or is this just a little inane/insane