shed that shell
translucently
lacquered
by childhood

that insect
fluttering  behind
the ivory
bars of your ribcage
was once buried
under funerary mosses
of a fallen oak tree
three hundred years
of aged silence
basking in it's demise
saying
"I stretched
to the heavens
but they scurried away
every night  of every day"

You are the last sliver of light
my rods and cones can find
a chill clings on the shoulders of an iron clad  morning
perfume she put on trailed behind for days
as the globe turned a maimed face away
from the heat of it's helium lover.

Even wan hills
looked better in
threadbare light
You were the whisper
of a neon lights
noses to the sky
in a pitch plastic night
I walked by their obstinate
legs, haunted by a plastic bag
gliding on negligent bursts.
upon arrival
roughly hung doors
of understanding
lit by cheap sulfur bulbs.
The handles too large for
small palms to turn
my feet knew better ways home
they ambled on beside my plastic ghost.

He clings to the bible
carrying it as if were a dog carrying dead fowl
its stiff brown spine
sometimes I wonder what kind of
clicks and and sparks happen in
that maze of a mind
staring with shiny slack lips
they reflect the heavens I’m sure of it
although usually avoid his eyes
there’s too much turbulence.

Today, a hot breath of steam
from the mouth of the sun.
I stood shifting-
my thoughts can never keep my body quite still

"Were you there that time?"
"no I wasn't."
a pause skated a fractured silence across the floor

"I'm glad you weren't there.. hell. I wish God wasn't there to hear that."

our lives are but lightning scars across father time's spine.

Did you find it?
by the chipped asphalt shoulder
colder than the stares you could scare up
Did you find it?
in the wandering stars tracking across
this scarred summer sky?
I watch your search
while you  kiss a cigarette's brown
speckled paper skin.
you look past me, just clouds floating across your vision;
as I am a poor container for satisfaction
nothing but scuffed plastic tupperware
missing it's lid.
did you find it?
under the shades of abandonment
or in the shallows
graced by shadow.
did you find it.
the slippery sweetness of
satisfaction?

Today. I was almost hit by a car,
wearing a scarlet dress
the way I least wanted to die
by the grill of an SUV.
The engine grinned hotly in my face.
the look on his face was priceless
I bet mine was better.
as I gasped, no room in
vocal cords for screaming
held my hands out
as if that would stop the metal from moving
tires screeched.
I don't know why he turned so sharply
I don't know why I put my arms out
or had to walk that way
that particular day
my hands shook  in line
at kinkos, holding back every chemical
mixing violently.
saying please and thank you
for two sheets of paper
that could have mattered less
pulling sunglasses
over my face with a case of the shakes

life just stamped me with an appreciation
for itself
only taught by almost getting hit by an SUV.

life went on around me, the workers in yellow on the corner
got a few moments of thrill.
the folks at Starbucks
the other people grinding their teeth at the stoplights.
a moment excitement.