as if you could not eat otherwise
that's how a poet should write
that's what she told me

but that's not the language
I use
no no no
no

it is and has been
a headfirst dive into
a shallow lake

soul and spine's at stake
it festers there anyway

but beyond that
there's the conjuring of
limitless higher powers

long meditations
on self mortality
sweating through
bedsheets

touching, almost
the azure wavelength canopy of sky
with slow breathing