consuming cigarettes like candy at a theme park
shoveling, inhaling
before mom takes it away
incubating cool concrete
to hatch eggs of non-conformist
thoughts, theories, therapy
Costello glasses fog
with skinny-jeaned laughter and flannel
bellows only audible within the confines
of claustrophobic, humid basements
spilled with beer out of sun-lit
fear.
stay ******, ****** up and disconnected
feigning parental disregard and lacked motivation, except
to pet cats to the tune of vinyl
manicured with dust
seeping with lust
for the past
when rainbow-striped sweaters were cool.
pound the drums too loud for ears
sweating out anger and distrust
stuck to reconstruct or fit in
become the grey, the void, the in-between
the one thing you don't want.

Ink blots on wooden cloth,
symbols of our time
Beliefs, memories, dreams
woven in, out
then back again

What's this you're trying to hide?
A stain in time
A crime to rhyme
Detach and drift
Up from sticky parchment
and greasy palms

Stacking words like a game
Rearrange, complain
sing about the rain and
how hard it came,
filling up your drain

Or simple placement, even
Dash here, there, into
steaming cups of coffee
with swords for pens
Just a lens, just a lens

Let the smoke linger
through sweating fingers
and silenced breath
to be shown, known
Pretend you're not alone.

I will take off my red shoes
dance through the streets
and unpaved avenues
of seduction and retreat

I will shake loose the wool
my skin bare to the frost
feel the rising swells
with the time that I've lost

I will feed my clothes to the fire
singe every fiber and strand
reduce the pictures and discs
to grains of polluted sand

I will unhinge the jewels
hanging dead on my skin
instead reaching deeper
to the one curled within

          I spill the bottle next to the bed
          pour capsulated white fortunes
          into the cup of my hand

          I open the bottle from last year in March
          fill a glass to the top and toast
          to the time that I've lost

I've flown through infinity
like wildfire through Hell
watched pieces of the past
sink as shattered shells

I've found peace and place
and forgot all the rest
held the soft hand of death
my final mortal test

with disappointment
comes sadness
where loneliness appears
and eyes can do nothing
but form empty tears

On the steep incline
we sip moonshine,
forget our woes of the day
where in the muddy field
sheep did yield
to rest our aching feet.

Sun rays cut the wind
in a cloud soaked sky
that the past three days
did nothing but cry.

We rejoice with baguettes
on the great precipice
where the sea becomes the sky.