the porcelain bowl of control

             intermission

parking lot, door ajar
too many. . . too few

               encore

in the woods at dusk, snaking down throat
cackling at weakness

mastered volume—almost silent now
near perfection...Oscar-worthy exit
never wait more than three hours

*get it out get out  OUT

the dagger
to pierce my ******,
spoke in tongues

the Word:
                                                           ­   'We shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves!’

folds over, keels over in a midday faint, too scorching for compassionate glances. . .
on display in a crowded menagerie of folks
who don't give a **** if it lives or dies?

who just want it to disappear
and refrain from disrupting
their precious status quo?

their delicate REM patterns?

their brilliant stream of thought
about what they'll **** for dinner?

each of these bruises its own galaxy
another candy bar will be named after

nothing more than
grains of bones and debris
on the ocean's grits bottom

watch the **** out—
heart murmur, erratic speech patterns. . .
and
blackbird
mourning, filthy?

*phoenix

Half-***, half-wit, half-empty, half-over, half-life.
I always come in halves,
holes

cigarette, puff-puff-pass to the wind in solitary solicitation on the balcony,
half-*** smile.
I should like to never rise again.

I think I sleep to die.

sink, sink
in lake, brain-eating amoebas await
enticing,
murky waters eat heartily

the titanic of unrequited love:
*remains, unexplored