Acid smiles
Simple lucre, to a faster pussycat
Worth your was, thus a loose while
Sweet knowing you, with this and that...

Solemn kinds of whether?
Looking beyond you, the truth to a smile
Fashion forward, and surviving the gall to bother
A season of choice, to keep the better of rues of denial?

Talk to me...
The rose and the voice of alright, tonight
The liberty in a merciful love, merciless to we
Simple news for an irony's me; my accept, my slight...

Yours again...
Set to rights, the tale of seeking how
For a better lover, the risks of integrity
With hold or archaic powers, the speed of knowing...

Is a reaching us, a clashing must?
To voice the other wise, in these rages and fates...
A look for bests is the only way to discuss
A misery followed by charisma; a sense of privilege, curious in the shade

Where sincerity is a favored eye, if not concern
Spare intention, in the paces we further to skill
Life with a stern lip, but know an eye to worth...
With the love it is given, the swallow of pride, in hell?

I’m shirtless after
getting too hot in the best kitchen stool spot
It’s where the dog will leave me alone for a sec
It’s a weird winter
every year now, but they say the Great Lakes are
the best place to ride climate change out
It’s been too cold, now it’s getting too hot for this time of year
so the old Watkins Glen hoodie was too much
I almost ripped the front neck like an 80s girl
but I didn’t have the strength
If walks are still out of the question,
I better start doing physical comedy
around the house like Three's Company because
I said I was going to

We could have had it all
we still could
We reached peak performance
we almost reached Star Trek replicators
The whole world enjoying life saving advancements
over a hundred years
Only for it to decline for the first time
instead of just sabotaged into a slowdown like before
Those billionaires want to stay relevant
Even though they’re beyond useless
They’re a detriment to our democratic progress
just to preserve their status as economic royalists
who decry the decline of Victorian social deference

Remember Kurt Vonnegut talking about his school
in the era of almost proficient public funding?
He was excited to have a jazz band
Until these types of things were deemed unimportant
for those who may need them most

Now we have the technology to exceed the speed and competence
of the 80s, 90s, and aughts
but the the profit motive just gets stronger and more depersonalized
We’ll teach them to fish by killing them all

when a deep love grips you, you don’t mind—

you savor it and say thank you.

it takes you by surprise and suffocates you, hand on throat— callous, stern, kind.

at first it scares you, then comfort envelopes. possibility emerges.

you cough, your lacquer-coated, oak-like lungs tapped dry and somehow full, heart still deep, and thoroughly unsure which way leads home.

you’re still whole and never won’t be, but something tells you there’s another piece out there.

the hand on the throat; the shrapnel in your lungs; the serenity behind a contented chuckle at some half-assed joke.

all the same, it’s real. and you know it. and it won’t leave you, even if things don’t end the way you want.

it’s been said that it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. I want to say it’s true.

cough as much as you need, ask for a drink, and speak deeply and honestly without losing yourself.

she gives her hands
     but shes still left with her head
she gives that too
     but shes still left with her heart
she gives her heart
     but it still hurts like hell
so she gives herself
     and now there's nothing left
     to give.

I've passed the homeless on the street,
Wondering if today they'll eat,
And I cry, Why me?

I know plenty who attend AA,
And many who didn't make today,
And I cry, Why me?

I know there's millions unemployed,
As dwindling aid keeps them buoyed,
And I cry, Why me?

They're lonely and they're isolated,
The throngs, apart and dissipated,
And I cry, Why me?

Many friends and family die,
Yet still I cry, Why me?

Why me, indeed, a plaintiff wail.
Why me? Why me?
Until I fail.