i was a cicada.
i was born last night, as the sun sank low in the sky.
i rose up from the ground, as the dead do in my dreams.
i was a cicada.
i ate and ****** and lived and died, in the darkness without light.
i sang and danced and laughed and cried, but it's morning now and i've lost my sight.
i was a cicada.
i have grown so tired from my life.
i will rest here on this tree and die.
i was a cicada.

Each morning
close to ten.
I get a call from Egypt,
                                        or India.
Exotic places, that I will never see.
Flooding with people I will never meet.
                                But Ahmed calls everyday.

When the phone rings, and I see the number.

I want to sing him a song.

                       Picture message him masterpieces.

                                                           Text him epics.

In a sea of instant hang-ups,
              and hot-headed drunks.
                      Poverty stricken parents,
                                                    and last straw leaps.

In the ocean of anger and grief,
I want to be the voice that reads poetry.

You peered into the camera once,
And you cried
And I held you

I should have realized then
That all the love in the world
Would not make the damnest difference

He looked up-pointing
ah moon
He said

You know it was bright and early
morning
and sure enough
far off and unassuming
ah moon

Not even full
or very impressive
Washed out if that helps

But he got it
He knows
At this ridiculous tender impossible age

That the moon is the moon
luminous and heavy
full on the evening horizon
facing any whichway

silver orange ghostly
imposing
left right high low
day or night

And when it is black
New and gone
He's never asked me
where it went.

Out of the craven sky
the flow of molten bittersweet

-- no purity in these
that catch your lashtips
as you wrap your arms
around the blanket fog
and breathe in dew
from distant mountaintops --

You gaze beyond my eyes,
beyond my tethered dreams
to pierce the wound that bleeds
with molten bittersweet,

And from these drops
a rhythm beats
'til nothing more,

Only you
Only you

I have dreamt of life and of death
Traversed the universe in one breath
I feel like a different kind of human being
I look at the world others don't know what I am seeing
I feel like the Canis Majoris star
I am truly massive, just not from afar

...