I won't see you take to the sky
like an eastbound ****** of crows
but I'll greet you in our nest.
until then

it's nothing glamorous.
there's nothing pretty here.
when you're a poet words
pour from your pores and your belly
turns hard.
muscles tighten, bones chip
(and you often get mad instances
of carpal tunnel)
pounding syllable upon syllable
at the punching bag before you.
an empty screen.
a yellow notepad.
you pound and pound until there's nothing
left.  nothing for fanfare
nothing for friends
or publishing
or shares or notes.
the words cake on your skin
and wash away
but you sweat them out again.
you've taken up the task of
solving the world's problems
when you first set out just to write
something nice for your girlfriend.
trust me, man,
this is a loser's game.
there's nothing pretty here.

our breath is numbered.
take it deeply, count to three
one less we can hold.

let me thaw in this new season.
let me contain what contains me.
dump me out of this bucket room
and let me crash against the slippery
crags of the west.
let me flow quietly, gently
let the tongues
of every creature on my path
tickle my face
and belly as I sink by.
let the sun **** me up into
the sky and let me fall
back down as a green glass bottle.
pack me tight, hurl me when the leaves
drip into the soil once again
let me bust apart on your face.
let me be soaked into the ground
let me soak the seed
so he may grow.
let him thrive higher
let me dry slowly.

I'll trade faces
with anyone that
will have me

this is the black that I cloaked myself in,
my father's inheritance,
cold blanket of blindness.
that is the crescent slipper I wore
on my feet.
I was Hermes,
coal, jet, fresh leather,
I was a ****** of crows:
a carrion cluster feasting on white
dwarfs and other dead things
that hang by this stellar roadside.
I was alone
and I thought it was magic.
I was alone
and I prayed for magic.
when I sealed that spell
the words made me jump,
I wasn't expecting
to see you here.