call me challenger girl.
I have found myself in this world alive and angry.
In one hand, I clasp an empty hallway, and in the other, the feathers of a flightless bird.
with shivering deliberation, I paint my eyes black and my lips blue,
knowing I have come to fight the scary ****** sadness,
to hear my battle cry echo off the canyons of nothingness.
when I wander home, wounded,
know the only tears in my eyes will be those of joy.

Some sort of godlike being,
Gold and gossamer looking out for me.
A foreign, sunrise stillness,
Benevolence to blame when things go wrong.


Looking at every tiny scrap as a keepsake,
I’m collecting tattered ticket stub sentiments.
Dead plants and bygone birthday cards,
Graced with nostalgic fingerprints of ghosts.


Getting the spoon to my mouth without spilling any milk,
A youthful fearlessness fills me.
Curved back of infancy at the garage-sale table
Stomach aches faked and teeth lost in toast.

Remind me why I came here.
Shrug your shoulders, show me the cigarettes and stained glass that you promised.
Make this heart, this tinfoil on train tracks, crumple and bleed and alarm like so many smoky motel rooms.
Take your 40 paces and draw, tempt me with tension from across the parking lot.
Tell me tomorrow we'll find ourselves just as nameless as tonight.
Remind me, again, why I came here.