Tie that noose around my throat,
and push me off that ledge,
watch my neck snap as I hang afloat,
and make a personal pledge.
The audience perks up,
you let out your howl,
decimating my name,
and putting me to shame.
I will never be like the man I see,
I am different and I am me.
This man has done acts of treason,
from adultery to lying,
all for no reason.
Did we not give him love as he had needed?
Did we not give advice that was never heeded?
Yet he threw us down and turned his back,
backbone and morality he does lack,
I will destroy his name before I destroy his life,
because I am his love, I am his wife.

just   hands.   just   skin.  just   tissue.   just  atoms.
just kids. just hormones. just chemicals. just atoms.
just mouths.  just  water.  just elements. just atoms.
just        young.       just     exploring.      just    open.
(justatomsjustified)

I'll be eaten alive one day:
one day, i see it in my mind
so close to closure along an empty street
late at night
(owls just retired and birds
not yet up),
orbs of light tethered to tall electric poles
cast dappled circles on cracked pavement;
illumination and safety
(for that two metre radius).

Stepping between them
like a girl child on stones
across a garden,
I anticipate each missed step
as sinking into sand or frightful waves.

Singing drunk back-alley lullabies
i'll soothe the skelebabies in their sleep,
their poor crusted noses snuffled against
a cold shift of air
(their private torment plastered over billboards
with corporate logos and dim colours,
suggesting the city's lights have gone out and
the local government is in frantics.
That is, after all, what you'd focus on)

Girl child games were so tipsy and magic
(and so close to real coldness);
between two orbs of light i'll slip
through the cracks
in the pavement.

THE END.

(eat me alive,
eat me alive,
eaten alive by the
wolf at the door)

Back in touch with virtual reality,
fingers caress the keyboard
and the screen
(the gentle, intimate touch of lovers),
plugged in the earphones and became
part of the circuit,
electrons zipped into one ear
and were discharged from the other.

Put aside the world for an hour
or two (lost track of time;
it flies when you spend it
with love interests);
drowned self in a smaller /
larger world of blue glowing
screens and perpetual music.
One thousand million songs.
Free. Click. Here. Now.

All you lovely strangers so much
more real than real,
so cool and artistic and how I
wish I could write poetry like you.
How I wish.

Open the door and observe:
the human component of
a full parallel circuit.
Exchange and exchange.
Fixated on a blank screen.
Tapping foot to invisible sound.
Typing faster than would talk.

Close the door.
Walk away.

Gone,
the warm summer grass we laid upon
in daisy dreams of gold, yellow suns
today walking barefoot on the lawn
cool rain awakes the autumn dawn
dewdrops disappearing in the ground
a chill has come with breath cold lungs
to breathe upon the earth and trees
bringing summer's fire to her knees
and with a final gasp will swallow
molting leaves red and gold
falling to the earth
fallow

my town
where wild flowers grow
between tram tracks.
there was a time when
it was hardly morning,
no bridge into daylight.

walls had ears,
neighbors had eyes
whispering behind the curtains
there was an emptiness in the guts
of the city
and poetry locked in the drawers,
Borges was read under the blankets
while Dostoievski was  a comforter:
demons were embedded.

yeah, people were clapping and smiling
watching the nub of history, numb
they had a life to live,
what can you say?

one day the radio
burst on in the streets
some were shivering in the attic
"we are free", they said
"we are free",
came the echo in trance

"shhhhh"! said others,
let us wipe the blood
don't disturb the sacrificed
so we can sleep
without dreams

it's Thursday in my town
streets are weary
and our souls are
slowly expanding