Five blankets rumbling winds
and me
Mind humming like a bee
I didn't ask for it
(It didn't ask for me)
Unwinding the coils
at 4a.m.
And I feel
free

A baby crawling paws down
Down the stairs into
the study room
the odd computer flashes
the faces of what looks like people
a whiteout face
with black shameful eyes
breaks the scroll of happy faces
happy places and joyous info
as empty as a new USB
it's gaze pierced my soul
forever
It was 1998 then
More than a decade later
whiteout faces everywhere
on every screen
monitors growing out
like tumors on a monster from
The Thing
one grows in my pocket
I pull the tiny screen out
and the face eyeballs me again
one grows in each room
the kitchen has one on the fridge
all the cars have them, too
pixellated faces talking at me
I feel there may be one plugged on my
heart or brain
I can only think on its terms, now
I'm going to need a
date for the movies tonight.

There's a world that sits
in the tip
of
your cigarette.


There's a city in
that spark.

They used to have a routine
The two of them
Every day at ten past one PM
They’d sit in the fourth row
Of the classroom
Side by side
She’d listen attentively
To the teacher’s lecture
And he’d wander through his
Thoughts; listening to his mind
His massive arm would drape
Over her petite frame
Her dark corkscrewed hair would surge
Till it lay atop his free hand; a color contrast
But the routine changed
As did some feelings
Everyday at ten past one PM
She’d sit in the fourth row
Of the classroom
All alone
She’d listen attentively
To the teacher’s lecture
I would slowly work up the nerve
To slide into the lone seat beside her
Her dark corkscrewed hair surged
Till it whipped around as she could see
That is was me
That I was not him
…
She smiled

Give me your failures and I'll show you my heart
Give me your shame and I'll tell you of life.
Give me your pain and I'll take it and hide it from you
Give me your hand and I'll give you my own.
Give me your heart and I'll show you the world.
Give me a chance and I'll take it.

I wish the strength I once possessed
Would come again to me
My body strong as when I was young
No more these maladys

I wish that I could hear once more
The things I used to hear
The chirping bird a crunching leaf
Once these were so clear

Once my  eyes could clearly read
Words upon a page
But now the words they only blur
The more as I age

I have so many aches and hurts
Within my bodies frame
But there was a time when I did not
O if I could be young again