Natures*
  or *we are as ether

I
Are we as poisons,
sodium and chlorine, that coalesce and nourish?
No. We are as soldiers,
crush and caress, nimble fingers that curl in behemoth fist.

II
Are we as voltage,
joules and amps that force a heart, shocked and croaked, aglow?
No. We are as ether,
breathed and clear, black in the panoramic choke.

III
Are we as accelerants,
hydrogen and oxygen, that transfix and extinguish?
No. We are as isotopes,
radium and tritium that luminesce, blister, and singe.

IV
Are we as snow,
in the dive icing all life that will ripen by the slake of a wet spring?
No, we are as one cell,
measured splits usher all birthing, en masse a cancer trampling everything.

There are many kinds of broke
Someone broken once just told me
Not the coins that you cant spend
of the thoughts you don't dare think

It's not caring about the cancer
when the doctor says it's forming
it's not sleeping under bridges
outside Rock Springs Wyoming

It's dropping your old habits
so the new girl thinks your clean
It's missed appointments, parking lots
Fireworks and kerosene

There are many kinds of tired
my old body spoke to me
it's your back that wont stand straight
when the tendons start to sing

It's keeping your eyes heavenward
so age wont make you mean
It's dead end jobs, bloodshot eyes
fireworks and kerosene

IF I could only catch on fire
when my passion wants me to
or take a warmer breath
like I've got something to lose

It's something just beyond my reach
a song I don't dare sing
it's missing links, a chance for peace
Fireworks and kerosene

Gaping holes from ripped heart,
love no longer contained,
seeping into pools of pain,
taped body outline as I drain.

Emotion fueled accelerants
ignite and melts neurons,
no longer firing in the fire,
melted like an electric wire.

The numbness sets in
as the painkiller takes hold,
and memories fade to the now
lost in the past but moving on, how?