Taking my hands off the bull’s horns, I let the beast breathe for a minute to cool down. I can feel the steam pumping through the giant’s lungs. The animal shudders. It’s feeding time.

Jumping off the motorcycle, and landing at the foot of a high octane pump, I turn around and open the fuel cap, only to find it’s bone dry. Curses. Feeding the pump plastic, I convince it to share a dram with my mechanical gorilla.

I am like toast. I’ve been burned. Crusty outside, soft middle. You spread your sugar on me, and consume me. When you’re done with me, you look into the fridge and pull out another bag of bread.

The waiter looks at me with the cheese grater in his hand, he starts twisting the handle, making milk confetti shoot out of the bottom of the contraption like old faithful in the summertime. The server asks me to say the word  “when” when I feel like I’ve had enough.

Looking down, I think about how like the cheese, I am a snail grinding into the earth; spending my life away at petty work, only to achieve my end goal of being nothing more than a trail of slime and a worn down shell; my ground beef mess of a body pointing the way in which I was traveling.

What shape would reveal itself, if I were looking at my trail from a higher ground? A circle? A line? Perhaps from above, my path is so thin, that it blurs from existence at further distances.

I look back up expecting to see the waiter. He is gone. My salad is cheesed.

Dancing
Along the wild mountain road,
the smell
of crisp lavender
fills the air

Birds chirp overhead,
guiding me home
Rays of sunshine peek
through a tunnel
of whispering green,
A warm breeze
from the lake wafts over me,
Freedom

Trapped like a dog in a cage, I’ve gotta ****.

My water bowl is half full, and my bladder feels like it’s gonna explode.

I chug down the last of the water to empty the bowl, so I can fill it to the brim with my ****.

I feel relieved, and I’m glad that I won’t be laying in my own ****.

Hours pass, and I begin to thirst, and my bladder feels full again. Going back to the water bowl, I’m ******.

Slinging my leg over the mechanical horse, I crank over the starter and listen to the heart of the beast tick away. I tell myself I’m just taking it out for a tank of gas. No need to push it.

Winding my way down the twisties, I find myself heading in the wrong direction. ***** it. I’ll find my own way there.

Straight stretch coming up, I pull in the clutch, give her a little gas, and drop the lever; lurching the animal back onto its hind leg. Looking under the handlebars at the curve coming up, I land the front wheel back down, and power my way into the next gear.

Bike screaming out of the corner, foot pegs blowing hot sparks behind me, I twist the throttle down, and hug the gas tank with my chest; the raging bull screaming underneath me as we rocket into a locust storm. Chunk by chunk, they blast onto my body and face like war paint shot out of a cannon.

Looking an inch over the speedo and handlebars, my speed cannot be seen. There’s no time to look, and my eyes are crying fire from the raw wind. My ears roar with the sound of a jetliner crashing into the ocean. The tears are dry before they hit my ears.

Now in top gear, full throttle, I move my feet away from the brake, and shifter, back to the tail of the bike; gripping with my legs to hold on, as I rocket into the horizon horizontally.  Finally, I take my left hand off the handlebar, and tuck it between the gas tank and the radiator, so that I fly through the air like a shark.

I open my mouth, and a wind enema shoots its way through my sinuses and out my nose. I smell pure oxygen. My vision closes in, my eyes strain to see the road ahead. My chest is beating faster than the pistons on this death machine. I can see it. The edge. Forever tempting me.

Sometimes, you want a taste of your old habits. In the hot desert, and on the high seas, it pays to drink your own ***.

Incomplete Reaction

I once knew an evil activation energy. After many deals with the devil, I began to see the depth of his horrible passions. Once I had made it to shore, I thought that I had escaped his wicked tidal wave. But the debt collector knocks. Not wanting to do his business in public, the tidal wave blocked my escape and pulled me back into his depths.

It was then when I saw your horrified face, I knew that I had died in your eyes. The reaction was finished. The debt was never paid. And you never got an explanation.

Screaming underwater,
I look up to see no bubbles.
My damaged lungs explode with regret.

If I hadn’t have opened my **** mouth.

Endothermic Entropy

Endothermic reactions absorb energy from the environment, and store that new energy in chemical bonds formed from the initial reaction.

Reactants contain more potential energy than the products of reactions, because chemistry requires activation energy.

A catalyst speeds up a reaction by lowering the reaction energy, so that a reaction may occur at lower temperatures, pressures, and concentrations.

Therefore, if particular reactants get close enough, and become densely concentrated, or if the reactants gain temperature, or are under high pressure, only a tiny amount of activation energy is needed to start the reaction.

Don’t have an endothermic reaction.

Like a beaten dog,
Or a slave of the land,
I resent the sunrise.

After the morning medication,
I crumple into the tub,
Broken, weeping, shaking,
A carrion to the carnal carnivores.

Choking down my tiny breakfast takes hours,
Trying not to think of lunch,
I escape outside to quell the nausea,
Often finding myself miles from home.

Eyelids growing heavy, the day isn’t even over, I just wish mine was.

A pack of American Spirits,
The thermos is full of brew,
This morning sunrise,
I’m thinking of you,
Packing an extra helmet and another pair of gloves,
I am happy,
Gonna pick you up

When we wheelied,
You held me tight,
Going around corners,
We leaned just right,
Bodies synced,
Dancing in the moonlight
You were the one,
That caught my sight

The helmets are broken,
The bike is too,
I broke it all myself,
Flew over the view,
Now I have this prescription glue,
That makes it hard to chew,
Feels like I have the flu,
And the doctor hasn’t a clue,
Why I’m not yet new,
But I know,
It’s you

Days blur,
Always causing a stir,
Speech is slurred,
Forgetting what’s occurred

Another new pill,
To get me over that hill,
It’s supposed to be chill,
But the side effects make me ill

To my frustration,
I’m still at the station,
Stronger hallucinations,
Have put a hold on my location

No man has ever died in a pool of his own tears,
Years of fears,
Just a smear on the sphere
Two eyes, and a pair of ears

Swooping through space,
My vision is filled with yins yanging through gaps in time

The first falls
Trying to catch himself
He is bound to stride for eternity
Sprinting into the void

The next shaman
Looses consciousness
Awake in his own dream
He does not compute

The third elder falls to his face
****** into the black hole sun
Madness clawing its way
Toward me
Relentless

I grind my teeth
To a fine powder
Eyes bulging
From my skull
I resist
My body disappears

How long
Can you look at the blinds
Melting, dripping, looming

How long
Can you watch the still drapes
Fluttering, dancing, shifting

How long
Can you stare down that wall
Snowing waves, shimmering

How long
Can you stand it
Trembling, electrified, paralyzed
You couldn’t sit if you wanted.

One two, I’m in a mood.
Three four, lock the doors.
Five six, what’s the fix?
Seven eight, cry an hour straight
Nine ten, better again.

It all started back in 97
I died when I was a kid
Didn’t want to go to heaven
I missed my ma,
I missed my pa,
I missed the sweet curves of Arkansas

I came back worried
Had to live life fast
Dropped a gear
And began to pass
Looked back in the mirror
I lost sight of what truly last
It’s all about the people you know
We can all be happy if you go with the flow

We all family down here on dirt
People are evil because of worth
You work too hard you end up in a hearse
You know that you can live out of a purse?
Take a walk
Never come back
Never wake up from your nap
Camping with your friends for life
People on the streets with guns and knives
In the woods there ain’t no strife
It’s just you and your next meal
That’s the life

But we can be better than that
We call ourselves civilized as a fact
Brothers killing brothers ain’t the way to go
Life is easier just go with the flow
Are you happy in that big house all alone?
You don’t need keys when you’re in the grave
Why you workin so hard to save?
Can’t you be happy with the choices you’ve made?
It’s in the past it’s all a fade
You could lose it all in a raid
Help your brother when he needs aid
Do positive and maybe you’ll be saved

I've lost my keys,
I've lost my mind.
I keep a spare set,
For just this one time.

Strum some chords,
And make a song,
If I had still a brain,
I'd even sing along

Body spinning circles,
And the mind doing flips,
I check in the fridge,
Under the stapler and dip

My most flexed muscle,
I know it is fried,
Once capable of greatness,
I believe it has died

Not sure whether,
to sob or scream,
I slump into a chair,
And put on some Queen

The song is familiar,
I've heard it before,
I used to play it,
At 104

Wrong side of the road,
not giving a ****,
I played that song,
Into the lights of a truck

But I'm not going 104 anymore,
I'm sitting still,
because I've lost my **** keys

Thousands of miles away from home, a broken man leans over the balcony and expels his soul.

Mouth covered in blood and *****, he sinks to the floor weeping himself to sleep

This is what it is like to cry in the middle of the day.

The gaze of a galaxy,
Looks upon your breast tonight,
As your chest rises and falls, so do the planets,
Madly spinning in dizzying ellipticals for you.

Your hot breath against my cheek,
Reminds me what it is like to be human,
Sending whiskey-like heartburn across my body.

I am inebriated by your gaze, galaxy.

Screaming underwater,
I look up to see no bubbles.
My damaged lungs explode with regret.

Spasmodically gasping for air,
I choke on the tears of my words.
My eyesight closes in around me,
As I plummet into the abyss.

If I hadn’t have opened my **** mouth.