A familiar smell
Brewing from the orange sky.
A cup of tea.
Leaves start to dry.
Felt on me -
A breeze - so shy.

Do it.
( Nah, just lie on the bed. )

Do it.
( Isn't it comfy here? )

You have no time.
( I have some reels to share. )

Five seconds to decide.
( "No", that's what I say. )

Do it.
( Five seconds over.)

I think I should leave it.

What a happy life
I realized I have got
When I stopped thinking

Maybe I’m born to set things free—
to let them go, and
watch that distance
slowly swallow them whole.
Maybe (surely) my talent is
cracking my heart, little by little.
(But only during the thunderclaps
so no one else can hear.)
Busted but beating,
I fashion its fractures
into art by
filling its spaces with
vibrant pigments and
sounds that satisfy.
Good as new, I tell myself in
a tone that’s all too familiar,
and proudly display it for anyone
willing to have look.
They pick it apart with their
curiosity— their invasive wonder.
“What do you call this piece?”
they’ll ask.
With a smile, I reply,

“Yesterday.”

Coins clink and that quickly
her mindless heart bats between
bright colors and moving lights—
pinging with bonus points
for kindness and understanding;
slingshots for extra lives
each time she feels something
and means it.

He’s not used to having a
playfield quite like this.
She makes this exciting;
a fifty-cent thrill that
he can afford to entertain
as long as he cares to.

/Insert./Launch./Flip./
Under glass, she’s untouchable—
unstoppable—
a stainless force that earns him
the high score he’s always
dreamed of having.
His string of numbers
lit in the back of.
He’s done it; he’s done.

She watches his hands drop
from the sides.
Music stops.
Bulbs dim.
Glass goes dark.
She falls again—
this time
with nothing to
catch her.

She waits; she hates
begging for the sound
of that coin to drop
one more time.

Length and lean
Tall and mean
Muscle and tone
Sigh and moan

Taught and clean
Bitter and gleam
Crush and bite
Timber and might

Holy and wrought
Rough and cough
Steady and calm
Dirt and charm

Man and soot
Man and foot
Farm and barn
Heat and brawn

Sleep and eat
Never obey
Stormy way
Hidden meat

i screamed till my throat bleed last night
you knew that it was my birthday yesterday

now i can't talk anymore

my voice is gone

and i've gone mute

for you