You love me for who I am
But I'm more than who you love
You mistake a tender sapling
For a well-formed adult shrub

You miss the stormy forecast
In the leading gentle breeze
You read my story's preface
As my crowning masterpiece

You hear pleasant birdsong
In crackling phoenix fire
So I hover here to please you
Instead of flying higher

You say that you know my heart
And I can't disagree
But I have such potential
Yet you love only me

Jean-kneed trees and boring brown shoes
Fuzzy cuddle fabrics in muddy subtle blues

Bumble words above like buzzing baby bees
Sticky-fingered nonsense and distant mysteries

Table-gum unders like grubby colored stars
Sticky-starchy name tags to tell us who we are

Untouched wishes flustered and everything is new
Laughing candles blown-out from a two-foot view

Wake up on the shower floor
Feelings scattered on the tile
With nothing left to cry about

The devils holed up in your head
Have finally reached a reverent lull
Hoping you won't laugh them out

It's the second breath you took today
And everything from now on
Is a little choked

Trying to find the shoulder line yourself
Praying for that river card
Gagging on the words

The ****** men are finally running out
Thrown about like plastic bags
In your gaping eyes

The flowers that they found for you
Stacked like Legos in the corner
And you're drunk as hell

A supernova signified our end
We flew apart with blazing tempers bold
But now my fire's long gone out, my friend,
And even bitter embers have grown cold

A silent city's summer helped me know
The lonely road of life where friends are spurned
The road where wounded lovers tend to go
To gaze at shores beyond their bridges burned

The echoes of our violent final words
Have drowned the love-filled chorus of our years
How can I break the silence you've preferred
And reach across the void to dry your tears?

How can the strength of friends so long professed
So quickly fall— and oh, so soundly rest?

And our brother, too, the metal shaman
Reaches up, plucks knowledge from the stars
We chant, guttural grunts, primal urges
And fierce grinding teeth clenching and screeching
The shaman dances and
Reaches up, plucks knowledge from the stars
And we SCREAM shrill
Bare our necks and bring the knife across, ****
A sacrifice to the metal beast
The shaman stares straight up,
Plucks knowledge from the stars
And the blood leaves us
Hair turns grey
Daily exploits lost in deepening wrinkles
The macabre ritual culminates...
The Shaman, unappeased
Laughs like Hyena, cackling
REACHES UP AND PLUCKS KNOWLEDGE FROM THE STARS!
The existential cacophony diminishes
Din dimming
Beast is empty
Bits flow like blood
Ones and zeros in a jumbled pool
The shaman delivers

The family sits around the glowing box
A tribe in an ancient ritual
Flip the switch, change the channel
The children plucking out their eyes
Little blind Oedipus
Smashing faces through the tube
To the life on the other side
Celebrities, products, and reality shows
Forget thought
Present your mind
To the beast
A cinematic ****
Send Damsels to appease the Minotaur
Change the channel

Spider web crick-cracks on eggshell skin
Raggedy Ann rag doll made of porcelain
Second-hand bruises, scratches, scuffs, and knicks
In the healing shields of my hands, quick enough to fix
Super glue and elbow grease I knew would save the day
So full of good intentions, I carried her away
The best laid plans of mice and men, all buggered by my feet
The jingly song of transience played out on cold concrete
A mindless second's trip-up, the crystal princess killed
Her splintered features looked up, haunt my memory still
Lips forever frozen, screaming "Please, no more!"
In kaleidoscopic pieces scattered on the floor