Humanity i love you
because you would rather black the boots of
success than enquire whose soul dangles from his
watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both

parties and because you
unflinchingly applaud all
songs containing the words country home and
mother when sung at the old howard

Humanity i love you because
when you’re hard up you pawn your
intelligence to buy a drink and when
you’re flush pride keeps

you from the pawn shop and
because you are continually committing
nuisances but more
especially in your own house

Humanity i love you because you
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it’s there and sitting down

on it
and because you are
forever making poems in the lap
of death Humanity

i hate you

I

      C
         O
            L
               L
                  A
                     P
                        S
                           E
                              D
Onto the
                              *FLOOR

I took a snapshot of my life
And wondered what if I was not.
If I never had existed
What would our lives had frought?
would my wife be just as happy?
Even thugh I was not here
Would my brother be more social?
What would he hold so dear?
If I had never come along
And come into the world
Just how would life be different?
How would their lives unfurl?
Would my mum still be in England?
Would my dad be with her still?
Would my Megan be as happy?
With someone else for her to thrill
The fabric that has been my life
Would have gone a different path
For fifty years are missing
I'm not there to share a laugh
Are my family just the way they are
Because of how I act?
Or would they all have been so different?
I don't know and that's a fact
A fifty year time difference
In all that's come before
because I didn't make conception
I didn't break on through that door
It's strange to think of what might have been
But all the same I'm glad I'm me
And that you've all been part of my world
And seen the things that I can see
I know that I'm a better man
for having you all in my life
I've got so many friendships
And I have a loving wife
To think that if I'd not been born
Just what your worlds would be
I hope that it is better
Because you all know me.

You left.
I stood in the shower,
Scrubbing my body clean,
Trying to erase the scent of you.

If I could,
I would peel away this skin,
Push aside these bones,
And pick out the pieces of your soul
You tried to entwine with mine—
Wrap them in a package
And mail it to you
Some day you least expect.

You appear some nights in my dreams,
But the nightmares come
When the daylight shines brightest.

If an easy rain
would make the rocks slippery,
he would hold my hand.

Men seldom make passes
At girls who wear glasses.