You are
cherry blossom
an oval
a fish-eye
you keep
mosquitoes
in a matchbox
& pray
to Buddha
we part every now & then
so we can meet again

You write you're gonna look for a girlfriend
once you're done writing your poems
& I hear the garbage truck calling my name
asking to collect my heart & dreams

( Poem follows below after this short introduction) So this is a warning for anyone who believes in mental illness & thinks that psychiatry is helping them rather than harming them & to remind them how it is a potentially dangerous tool for oppression & medicalization of normality. In 1850, a US Doctor came up with this diagnosis to claim that slaves that wanted to run away/ran away were mentally ill because he a) believed black people were inferior to white people b) that any desire in a black person to be free must be mental illness as they were born to be enslaved. I am not kidding. This really happened.

Drapetomania

So you see it has a name
this singing in my veins
the wish to be free of my chains
is apparently insane
for by my skin I was born to serve
those who would whip me
those who would trick me
of my birth right
to stand free in the sun
No, apparently, if I run
I am sick
tell me quick
doc what do I do
& tell me how do
you sleep at night
being so cruel
to your fellow man
is there a name for what
you do, I could think of a few
I can only come up with
' *******'

Like a Japanese
lucky nodding cat
she has a round face
& a tortoiseshell pattern
on her back
she sleeps beside me
talks in queer chatter
as if to ask me
what's the matter
why aren't you
playing
feeding
petting
no room for writing
or forgetting
my small friend

Dear poem,

When will you knock?
What color aura will you have?
Will you play an instrument?
What will your voice be like?
Will you like pink flamingos?
Will you be afraid of mice?
Will you be a Preacher?
Will you campaign for human rights?
Andy Warhol was a fake, you know
no artist should get others
to do the hard work for him
I don’t know your opinion on that
Will you play scrabble with me?
Will you be my love
or just abandon me
just as we’re getting started?
                                                    yours truly

Birds sing in sunset
never measure it
a task unspoken