Am I a black bird piercing the sky
or the space between your sigh
and my lie?
Am I an amber drink
or just a poem that makes you think
or the blood thats in the sink?

I scratch and hatch
some kind of plan
to sift through all this sand
surrounding me like a grave
but I walk nowhere
on these limp legs
on these wooden pegs
splintering underneath me

I unhitch and restitch
all the wounds
all the suitcases
all the trailers and all the trash
I throw out and blow out
all the people
all the places
all the face and the traces
of whatever this "me" is

"Be more likable
Easier to work with"
Clay
Sink your claws in
The gray
Hold on
Hold up
You always said
The gold never does stay

One step forward
Three steps back
Pull at the bottom of the stack
Masks reveal
Hearts conceal
Swim across all the seas
Lock all the locks
Throw away all the keys
Is a way of life
For people like me
Is there time
To just be

A note lingers on my tongue
A little on the spicey side
I would know if I could feel it
Solid ice walls
Surround me

Sleep against the ledge
Balance one foot
then the next
Peer into a could
A world of another time
Where sad is happy
And happy is a puppet stage.

Birds sing every morning
Some through a cage.

My eyes are lasers
Burning people
Unwittingly
Unwilling I wear glasses
So you can't see
And I can't see
Blind love the blind
Because it is a life
Without fire.

You are the last drop
circling around the ice cubes
and I am the fish
at the bottom of the glass
tossing and turning
looking and yearning.

You are a wide net
to let
all my lions out
and I am the metal
you should have used instead.

You are no amount
infinity isn't enough
and I am the stuff
you ***** out with *******

You are a rough that lingers
because you scar,
and I am one, single,
shooting star.

You set the pain on fire
lay it down slowly
in an amber pile
among the things
I can't quite reach
among the strings
I can't untie.

Variations on a theme
same play, different team
I kick the ball
But they don't receive
I start to call
But cannot answer
Quiet parasite
Quick cancer

Set everything on fire:
Earth becomes a sun
Because you went super nova.
Because you are awake.
Because you believe there is a God
To hate.
You want flames on the ground
To match the flames in your heart.
But you already have your wish.
The world
The people
burn every second.

Splinters in the stone
Passed a tree
Now gone and gray
Some may say
It's not personal

Sublime days:
Colored red,
Smelling of nothing,
And feeling like even less.

Wanting
And letting
I draw spirals around them
With sugar molecules and smoke
Poke fun at my addictions
When it is really only one
Ton of metal
Calling my name.
I look for the same
But find a lot of different
I look for words...
Why are you sad?
Why did she get cancer?
It's the same answer.

Cure me
Just Meat
meets a lover
Seen bright stars like them
Fall to the ground like them
Dissolve into the earth like them
Hold to skin
It makes a mark
Hold to eyes
See it stark
Hold to heart
It all goes dark

Even nothing is something

My mind is drizzled
with golden chains
wrapped unforgivingly
and I search endlessly
for a picture of us when we were a family.
I've been waiting for you
floating on an air mattress
of thoughts useless to anyone else.
Wear jupiter on your ears
to make you seem in-tune
or out-of-tune
whichever he prefers
cures as simple
as wearing a bullet around your neck.

A young machine
Three circuits too loose
Three days to lose
To waste
Away on blood
My own
Because no one wants it anyway
They say they'll pay
You back in love
How you wanted it
Instead
You're broke

I reach for the gold,
stop short;
could I hold it
if I caught it,
if I caught you?
Do you see how
I meant to?

Stopped short.

Do the same things
over and over
to try and understand
why you can't stop.