I just saw some idiot
Put a water bottle
In the pringles
Holder by the treadmill
In the gym.

You are infatuated with the reflection that stares back at you
Satisfaction with your vanity deprives the mind
You’ve murdered your ability to be humble
Have stifled your sense of righteousness
A gallant attempt in haste
To stall the illusion forming in your thoughts of advancing degradation of outer self
How horrendous it must feel that the ecstasy you so once associated with that reversed image
Has suddenly become a torture to set your gaze upon

I sought out the rain
And though long I sat within
Storms followed me home

she serves silence,
it lies on the tongue
like ash.
her quiet cuts
jagged,
tears the hem of my heart
I unravel,
and she throws my words away
with burnt-black peppers.

I hung my apron to dry
let the wind carry it, cradling
cloth with branch claws and
dancing legs all the way to hell
and back, embroidering glory
in each stitched parsley leaf,
I unthreaded each with a brittle needle
used each thin thread to create
my own tapestry.