A poem a day,
Keeps the boredom away.
A poem a day,
Keeps the hurtful thoughts at bay.
A poem a day,
Will help me imagine more as I lay.
A poem a day,
Always helps me find my way.
A poem a day,
In hopes to one day be okay.
A poem a day,
Will always help my word play.
A poem a day,
Helps me to get away.
A poem a day,
To eventually take your breath away.

heart, a softened shard
thumping deeper than itself
I insert music in my ears
Picking things, living and inanimate,
snatching from all around me;
I put reality in my pocket,
kidnapping eyes
as I build my time-armor
to crunch the kilometers
so hard to swallow
feeding the cogs of routine
daily and hourly bits of myself

We wait on the steps of the landing.
Looking up and down. As he checks his
lapels in the mirror. They pop up. Mom
fixes Baby-face-David’s jacket. His muscles
don’t fit. They pop up as he looks up and down.
The mirror isn’t full length but it’ll do.

The dogs sit and watch Baby-face-David on the steps
of the landing. Looking up and down.
They pop up as he walks to the door.
No ride today but a scratch’ll do.
Baby-face David looks in the mirror and gets in the
cab of the small truck. He doesn’t fit.

here i sit
here i stay
here i will cry
til i slowly waste away
if to breathe is to drown
to drown is to sing
a drug that can ****
can heal a king
here she sits
here she stays
here she will cry
til she slowly wastes away
if to crawl is to sink
to sink is to fly
a man that loves god
can hate his own life
here he sits
here he stays
here he will cry
til he slowly wastes away

Fills you up with carrion,
And leaves you to marinate,
Merely Marionetting movements,
Jerky and unfamiliar with the phlegm thick,
Cement heavy,
Consistency of your limbs.
Tires you out,
Until you sit a screen zombie,
Nonplussed,
Having your scalp pulled back and skull
Cracked,
Like a jaw breaker

Out on a drive with me
It all starts out the same
The second that I turn the key
It turns into a game.

First, on the radio:
The song has to be just right
Especially not advertisements,
Sometimes they keep me from sleeping at night.

After that, I sit and think
And think and think some more
But the more I think, the more I ask
What is this all for?

Hey! No time for crises!
Let’s play games!
How many cars can you stack?
Anything to keep my brain tame.

But I’ve already thought of that game
So many times
I don’t want to play that game anymore
Repetition is what I most despise.

So I think my thoughts again
They’re even louder now
Stop stop stop stop
But how how how?

My pressure increases on the gas
Zoom zoom zoom
But it’s not because I want to go fast
It’s my head: boom boom boom

It pounds with the same thoughts
Over and over— yet
I can’t just think about something else
I can’t let myself forget

What if I crash the car?
What if I die tonight?
Stop stop please stop
Filling my head with more fright

I take a different way home
I’ve taken that one too many times
Even though it’s a little slower
And there are way too many lights

The water dripping down my neck
Is Chinese water torture
So wipe it off quickly quickly NOW
before you subject yourself to more torture

Torture torture
Driving like this is torture
Stop grinding your teeth, it hurts
You’ve been doing it since your departure

Honest to god, I want it to stop
The repetition is too much
I hate it
I hate it
I hate it
Make it stop.