A child's lost mitten wrinkled on the ground.
It's winter. A sure sign.

Karla said we should get lost.

Let's go off-trail, she said,
To some distant part of this city,
And we will walk until we wander.

I'd been drinking since dawn,
Not a usual thing,
And yet somehow today
A beer for breakfast,
Seemed like the right thing to do.

Come on, she said,
And pulled me by the arm.
We will edge away from all your demons,
And find a secret place to make out.

Then after, you can buy me a dollar cup of joe,
Karla continued.

We'll chew with our mouths wide open,
Trample down a half dozen donuts each
Then tease-feed the pigeons with samples and dessert.

What if it rains, I asked as I did up my old Nikes.

Then we get wet Karla said and kissed me.

There are people from my past,
Who seem to last and last,
While others touch and go,
Like a footprint in the snow.

Why one becomes a friend
While the others are pretend.
Is an outcome so absurd,
It makes friendship best endured.

Candy canes and caramel cookies, Christmas cards confess,
Pretty paper patterns, pleasing presents to possess,
Charming chatter, church and chamber, chomp a warm cholent,
Rest and read, recharge, reseed, rethink ,reform, repent.

When an atom bomb detonates
First there is white light,
A truly blinding flash of god,
For miles and miles.


Then comes heat.
The center of the sun
Tens of millions of degrees
In all directions.

Then fire.
Everyone is dead, burned alive,
Within
A half mile of the blast
Yes everyone.

Every building burns
Every tree ignites
Everything is cinder crisp.

Then a 500 mile an hour wind
In all directions
Yes 500 mph.

Radiation.

This is where we are.

Do you know those days
When you wake up
With a full bag of damp powdery cement
On your chest.

You struggle,
To get out from underneath,
To wiggle and worm your way out
To get up,
To move,
To run
Screaming,
Hands over your ears
From your own thoughts,
As an evil voice pursues you,
Hunts you
Laughs at you
Belittles you,
Taunts you, teases you, torments you,
With the relentless repetition....
**** yourself
**** yourself
**** yourself,

So you do.

Death isn't a state of being,
Nor a moment of relief,
It's not a next step answer,
Heaven will not sanction grief.

There is a nix and nothing,
After life we fade away
No mix of yin and yang.
Save a breath and do not pray