I go each day and put my offering on the bar.
  Heal my broken soul 'til the things used up.
  Be sure to keep a tip for all your hard work,
  saving all us from choking on the coal dust
10 percent for our funerals buried inside
the mine's indifference who lives or dies.

Love exists in a carnival
house of mirrors
each reflection fetching
in certain light such dears.
One night I'll decide
eat the lead of my .44
commit my sacred suicide
avoid blood on the floor.

Wanted: Temporary wife
to tend to my pretend life
in Boston footloose guilt
the beer and ****** quilt
keeps me safe in dreams
nightmares leak in seams.

Was it the anger
or complete insane
exciting stranger
or the birthing pain
our ****** mistake
the devils handshake
stubborn weight gain
never any answers just
put a bullet in your brain
leave the red goodbye stain.

Our lives grow up around us built
    from debris near at hand. Beer,
    laughs, anger, *****, *****, tears,
    shame, coffee, job, lust, ***, love,
    marriage, kids, dog, house, debt, day
    after day, separation just a prelude
    to divorce, child support, paycheck
    to paycheck, kids on odd days, odd
    lovers in weird spaces, gray hair,
    AA, church, bars, DUI, court, AA,
    kids on even days, ex moves on and
    marries, downsized, severance pay,
    coast for a few months, broke,
    evicted, rent an attic, read
    poems, write poems, smoke, drink,
    my life grows up around me.

My mother slammed her Gavel down screamed *******!
    You're nothing more than a renegade sinner reprobate!
    I had no recourse. I was at mom's mercy. She sentenced me
    to face the executioner, my father's brutal temper to see.
    Dad would be home at 3 to mete out lashings by his belt.
    Growing up I told the shrinks the history of every welt.
    I've spent too much of my life wary of women with lips
    who held behind their backs brutal wicked devil's whips.

Remember when we played
tongue twister on a dare
the rogue night we were saved
we made our vows pinky swear.

I Pearl Harbored my family
we moved into deliverance
I was ****** too blind to see
the certainty of death's dance.