What’s shining can come to rust
Love is fragile and so is trust
Joy’s bubbles can quickly burst
Be ready if the worst comes to the worst.
The dearest pal can turn enemy
The inconspicuous can turn deadly
From dead wood can new flame burst
Be ready if the worst comes to the worst.
What seems close may not be near
It may not mean what you seem to hear
They all ain’t good for which you lust
Be ready if the worst comes to the worst.
Words may sound sweet and sugary
It can sting the little honey bee
Money is slowest when you need it fast
Be ready if the worst comes to the worst.
Happiness is elusive and so is peace
Won’t ever come the chances you miss
In the no air zone the wind can gust
Be ready if the worst comes to the worst.
The sharpest arms may turn out blunt
It’s not always the way you want
The biggest empire may turn to dust
Be ready if the worst comes to the worst.
Often so fallible what looks the best
Crumbles like ruins in life’s acid test
But you shouldn’t despair, hope you must,
Be ready if the worst comes to the worst.

****** abuse in itself is not the worst crime. No. The aftermath is. The invisible **** that happens over and over again every time you close your eyes.  That shiver that runs down your spine whenever someone places a hand on your shoulder or jumps out and shouts "boo" at you. They way you hold your keys between your knuckles every time you have to walk alone at night. The way your heart races when you are home alone and hear a noise in the house. No the actually act alone isn't the worst. The worst is feeling unsafe in every aspect of everything you will ever do. The worst is smelling his cologne everywhere you go. Sensing his presence when you know you are alone. The worst is breathing everyday. Just breathing when all you want to do is stop.

The worse is how your body decays in every spot that he touched even years after. I am rotting from the inside out. He injected dirt into my veins like a drug.

The worst is scrubbing until your skin is raw, until the water runs cold, yet still being consumed in filth. The worst is how one act, done by one person, over a length of time can so alter everything about you. Like my DNA has been rewritten. The worst thing is how it replays in your mind like a broken record that continues to skip.

Or how small it makes you feel, so powerless.  Such a greatness of nothing.and how that nothing consumes you. Then you wonder how being nothing can be so vast.  How feeling like nothing can become something that lasts forever.

The worst is trying to believe that your body is anything more then a wasteland when you know that that's all it ever is, and was, and ever will be. Daring to think that maybe you are beautiful and  deserving of more and having the mirror tell you that that is a lie.

No ****** abuse in itself is not the worst crime. The worst is how that one act wipes away everything that you are like an eraser on a chalk board and now all you are is the things that have happened. Now I am pain. I am hurt. I am the cuts on my skin.

The worst is feeling like you are lying every time you say that you are more then what he made you.

in the hospitals and jails
it's the worst
in madhouses
it's the worst
in penthouses
it's the worst
in skid row flophouses
it's the worst
at poetry readings
at rock concerts
at benefits for the disabled
it's the worst
at funerals
at weddings
it's the worst
at parades
at skating rinks
at ****** ******
it's the worst
at midnight
at 3 a.m.
at 5:45 p.m.
it's the worst
falling through the sky
firing squads
that's the best
thinking of India
looking at popcorn stands
watching the bull get the matador
that's the best
boxed lightbulbs
an old dog scratching
peanuts in a celluloid bag
that's the best
spraying roaches
a clean pair of stockings
natural guts defeating natural talent
that's the best
in front of firing squads
throwing crusts to seagulls
slicing tomatoes
that's the best
rugs with cigarette burns
cracks in sidewalks
waitresses still sane
that's the best

my hands dead
my heart dead
silence
adagio of rocks
the world ablaze
that's the best
for me.