It’s that my bedroom walls
Are two cupped hands, clammy
And cradling, how it feels inside
Of a sliced fish, pink sometimes
Too, like the gums lining eyes
Under a Spring sun
But they’re painted green,
The green of spotty mold florets
And planks with split ends
Shine like ironed dyed auburn hair
Molded in a cheap wax,
That never melts,
Though the desk lamp cheaply
Spotlights the thumbtacked
Rubric by the impotent light switch
And makes the doorknob warm
By association, it’s nice and still
So that I stay in here, developing
Absorbing phrases like “the
Activation of relational defenses”
Or ornamental gems from
The despondent Russian savants,
Even things that may be useless
(How to Clean Everything is turned,
binding back, bristles out, beneath
Popular Card Games, and I don’t
Own a deck of cards) that I still
Open and snack on in times
Of disorientation, and to go out
Would crumple the whole, delicate
Cocoon, the paper cloister, the
Draft that wafts around my hard and
Numb toes would escape
And I’d dry up like a defunct worm