something akin to virtuous
but all too virtual


it's the **** pixels boxing in my mind

sheriff sir i'm seeing squares


and
crying out for help

yo aún no he aprendido a vivir
solo por el hecho de que algún día me voy a morir
las chispas de un llanto
jodiendome a mi mismo
por estar en mi jaula de oro
mira como brilla
y una foto de mi mamá
la arena de un ***** puro
todavía la siento entre mis dientes
vidrios y altura
quemando dólares por gusto
pensando en un escape
no hay escape
y los rascacielos que no logran llegar a tocar mi **** ego
ni todo lo que alguna vez pudo ser
así así
sí sí
cuida a tu fífí
antes de que venga a romperle el cuello
por haberme negado de cualquier experiencia
buses llenos insurgentes
metro línea nuevos ministerios
y para mientras pensar en ese acento
no era el hecho de comprarte un trago
es que en ese momento estaba listo
para darte el mundo entero

my heart nearly stopped every time i had to cross the street
so let’s thank the queen for writing it down
before she’s just another thing i have to step over
all the rest have tickled my feet so far
and everything under construction reminds me that these days
the only remedy seems to be better luck and more cloud cover

i’ve been racing to crash on the couch
just to wake up to see if i have time for it all
and i want the stereotype to be true so i have nothing to cry about  
with the way things are going
you’d tell me not to be so brutal to myself
but the thrill i used to know is now paying its dues to the concrete

i was almost convinced i wasn’t asleep
when she whispered paris
nothing, everything may have changed
so this is not like anything i’ve never meant:

my heart nearly stopped with the regret of not talking to you
it's hard killing birds when you don't have any stones and
besides this time i think i've really done it
two days and this is already my favorite story but
second chances don't have to be so mysterious
maybe i just wanted to see you smile again

i should have said it w/o one of and the s after the L
still choosing o over x
and your pull showed my hands a home in the back of your denim
two across the channel makes the significant not so, if you want it
i’ll keep looking for you so long as you
don’t stop drawing me maps

if i died in my indecision then
your mouth showed me heaven
you’re the closest thing to purpose
i’ve ever tasted

i wish you knew how much i mean that

lightning may never strike twice in the same place
but i hope you do

right where you make me feel alive

the tips of my fingers have grown mouths
yes
and now all they do is complain about
not being able to see
you see
i'd give them eyes but
i swapped them all for the tiles
better suited for the triple letter
there's a rabbi rappelling down the
face of a mountain that looks like him
but still lets him down
he'll ***** you i swear
just hanging on the cliff
by the noose of suspense
you just have to give him a minute
feeling's overrated so
cue the parting lovers
i gave my fingers eyes
but took away their mouths
i showed them you and
now they seem like they wish
they'd never seen at all
a fair trade to have their lips again
and say what they want to say

and as the vacuum hugged the earth
so did the world embrace me
as did your open arms
once

words on paper airplanes now stalled out
in an electric stasis
shocking like when your blue eyes peered out
and made me realize that

holding hands on twenty fifth felt warm
like morning coffees pouring blessings
the lotion dotting sleepy faces
hung pretty as art on empty walls
trails of roses shaping your lips red
marked the rooms so stuffed with memories
the spasms in your sleep would cry out like
crackles of fires burning bright for us
brushing your hair with lamplight so sweet
showed the comfort of nights staying in
for you these eastern trains voyage north
and surrender to the belonging

you didn't just feel cozy
you felt so much like home

please hang me in the silence opposite your kisses
and make me wish the stars were alive
so that i can watch them burn trails on your skin
the echoes of a universe long disappeared
they're a reminder that i too would spend a lifetime
to reach you

sunday somewhere

a man smiles

nobody outpizzas the hut he thinks to himself

shards of glass
chewing gum bubble
vintage sixty three

her broken doorbell rings no more

sunday somewhere

a sentry guard laments the day his mother went out for milk
a cool mist slowly approaches him and begins licking his boots unaware that his pinky toe is peeking out of his sock begging for a taste of the blistering wind

he stands at attention
a noice emanates from the woods at his fifteen hundred
he totes his gun on his right shoulder and begins the approach
the noise somewhere between shriek and shrill leads him to a clearing in the woods where he sees a man of not more than forty years of age speckled stubble upon his face
walking around in circles with stick in the ground

he's got that look in his eye
a mutter a conversation a yell
a symphony

of sound

peonies for the poor folk a bushel of roses for the dead dandelions for the prayers speckled as dust crackled as wood he who seeks fortune shall make do with crumbs fire overhead a love overheard this time there's no way out we litter the past we litter the waters we litter whatever is left of our hollowed grounds

if only mother knew
if only mother knew

the sentry stands at attention

he brings his rifle down from his shoulder and raises it to his face

ah yes


the garble

arriving at the same place i always do


tracing you with thoughts
instead of sculpting your statue

i'll kneel at the altar of your lips
with the fear of getting lost in you


maybe this time there will be a solution

a breeze scatters the ashes from my cigarette
all over my legs and onto the ground
now they make tiny mountains of rubble
along with burning villages where it's lights out
before their inhabitants could even think
of worshipping the sun

parting lovers never have much to say
but i think i'll write their names somewhere
and forge my signature on a love letter meant
for an ocean that is inexhaustibly rocking
while cursing the moon for always pushing it away
when it's just trying to fill her craters

the spoils of history go towards making
impermanent things permanent on things
impermanent like the arms of those unknown
and like my backpack swallowing pens
maybe it wouldn't happen if we stopped
romanticizing the ink

my body falls in pieces from the heavens while
you're on earth mingling with the best of them
and it's not until halfway through a cosmopolitan
that you realize you forgot to catch me and
now the ants on the ground are getting stuck
on a love that could have been

have you ever noticed the shape of hearts
gives them a symmetry that makes them
capable of being folded and neatly tucked away
out of all the people you've met in your life
how many of them would you reach in your pocket
and unfold one for

if there's a reason i've melted it's because
my cigarette tastes an awful lot like you

sword sharp
getting stroked like the ego

people pleasing has certainly seen better days
in other ways pleasantries can be perplexingly particular

down by the river the boats hum
it's hot today and poor richard has started feeling a little feral

ah yes me thinks it's time for jammy jam

hell has raised the rates of interest
people actually want to go now

but the fiddle won't play itself

if there ever was one
i saw it in the simplicity of it

when i went looking for twelve rounds and a
kay oh


straight lines a bleeding nightmare
the witches are after it
and all the while we scribble scribble

fear not for the dollar
it got half baked a half century ago when a half dollar had a half head
how's that for the bell


the audience goes wild before the shiver silence
woah ** ship has sailed

i have been leaving a trail of crumbs
all of my life

the testimony is in
cry out hear hear

a shame that
the newsstand for a penny
a new stand
what a nuisance

what shall it be atom man
hear hear they see you cry


mother's tomato soup
grows ever cold

who spiked ya

all in the name of spite

mic check one two one two

for the sake of blue

literally literary

a man of many words







he chose to keep his mouth shut