I like you as an excuse, posing as the
Martyr I once thought I could be.
You're so much better than I am at this.

My instincts keep me tethered by hair.
Like lice there will be something waiting.
Man, you win.

I will suffer this fascism alone.
It sleeps cradled around me
As a crime scene.

Tracing the lines of this Yakuza beauty,
I stay up late imagining the
Artwork on my skin.
When I sleep it is always techni-colored.

Broken hearts never really stop breaking.
They get tired and wait to fall asleep.
They jump up and down when seeing hope.

Whoever invented heartbreak
Is a sick *******.
Tales of loving and losing,
Something to do in ones' spare time.
A break from being bored.

When my heart breaks
It keeps time like a metronome.
One and two, and one and two.
Each broken heart is stitched to the one before.

Like a Russian doll,
People inside people.
My heart is in the middle
And it is small and breakable.

We are hearts apart
In an ecosystem
That feeds upon itself.
A perpetual motion machine
Headed for the nearest black hole.

You call this tour of our
Destructive past success.
Can you feel the distance between us?
It is an ocean of dust.

Stumbling in and out of repetition,
Disaster climbs limbs like tree trunks.
We are jesters of the human body that
Trust in conquer of our humble hearts.

With sideways sleep patterns,
We can be the romantics
We hide from everyone else.

Seven years bad luck is far longer
Then we need to create this baggage.
You see the toll on my chest
Rise in anticipation of an early apocalypse.

We've left each other
Splitting at the seams.
Our innards reaching for one another.

Disconnected numbers stalk heavy hearts.
Turning your pages makes me
Want you again.

I give your skeleton keys back.
Each dagger now a gently resting flower.
You've made a bouquet
Good for any occasion.

With your heart farther away than ever,
Our story ends with your face
Evaporating into my skin.

There she is Mrs. America.
Glistening for you all
With her torch, tiara, and title.

Wave for her, I know she'll find a cure.
Look how she brought us here
To smile and tremble in final awe.

See she walks and see her pretty locks.
Look how she tends the flocks
Of children less mothers who beat the odds.

Share her fears, her intimate details.
No longer a strangers shell
Know why for her this is so real.

She and I know limits above the sky.
Tenacious and set so high,
A feeling of mutual time gone by.

Feel her pride, feel it from inside.
It no longer, no it doesn't have to hide.
She's changing the world stride by stride.

What good is a rib cage
That only holds a wooden heart?
Scalpel in hand you are Geppetto
To my marionette bones.

Snapping out of place
These tin man joints come loose for you.
With my cogs and spindles strewn about,
I hired a man to clean up your mess.

My diaphragm was made trampoline,
My ligaments turned silly putty,
He's heard of your capable hands.
Spinning cobwebs for lungs,
He made room for compulsory expansion.

I thought he was benefiting us but
Now I bleed grapevine.
My eyelids are sunflowers,
My cheeks lemongrass.

He has taken root and spread.
He wants me to reject your soil
And replace it with his own.

He's a breed far different from yours.
My curves, now rhododendron,
Are soft and tender.

They welcome rain with a slow deep sigh.
What was once wire and conduit
Is now a gently blooming garden.

Feeling raw and wrung out
The humidity hangs heavy.
When one anniversary's healed
Another takes its place.

Death of a parent,
Eclipsed by the death of a friendship.
Death of a cousin,
Eclipsed by the death of my organs.

I'm shedding skin again
As another challenge begins.

A loved one leaving the country,
My heart is traveling outside my body.
My inner child sees the world
Through the ones I love.

This proxy tethers thin
Through the heat and dust.
My heart is not enough shield,
As my loneliness craves release.

Infiltration always starts small.
You get a plan, plans change
And you work with what you get.

Sometimes you slip.
Someone spots a trigger switch
Peeking out of your pocket.
Plaid becomes a nucleic time bomb.

All radioactive wool
Full of flare and inch thick cuffs.
Hemmed by hand and covered with patches.
Each one detonating a different city.

Sitting quietly and unsuspecting
In the parking lot.
Dodge, Chrysler, and Volvo militaries,
Wait comfortably in line
With books & instruments
Miles from home.

Sometimes God walks in and
You know you're in trouble.
Caught by your bravery
And lack of Hail Marys.
You try to protect your victim from
Over exposure to the sun beating in your chest.

With a smile like the Moon you engage him.
Testing who smiles wider, you or God..
Your subjects like flowers,
Relishing in the light,
Gaze intensely mesmerized
At the sight of this silent war you've waged.