In the Event of An Emergency

I think I’m just about to capsize

but all you scream is CAPITALIZE

You take the waves from the water                                                   

and the hope from their hands                                                           

we’re just meager practioners                                                

scoping out a place to land                                                    

but your shores are too hostile                                               

and your madness is proven                                                   

by the way your mouth foams                                                           

and the angles of your body moving                                     

in a warped dance of private pride                                        

and enlightenment by the way                                               

of chemicals and plants that really                                                     

have no place in this game                                                                 

of fight to the death in a basement                                        

of cold stone floors and water dripping                                

from the ceiling but all you hear is                                         

the screams of your soul as it’s tripping                                 

down the stairs and flights that you’ve climbed                   

but for no reason as here you are now                                   

gasping for air in some alleyway that                                    

you swear you’ve been to before somehow

You think you’re about to capsize

Edges of Existing

Create in Me a Clean Heart

I find you unabashed

and unashamed

as rain trickles down

the window making

patterns not so easily

duplicated by these

hollow whispers of

the simplest mockery.

A gratifying echo

from wall to wall of your

throaty laugh  that I only

wish I could accomplish

but it’s time and time again

coming up short since

I’ve got only pocket change

a Canadian penny with the face

of a queen

but this is no fairy tale.

Paint me your ecstasy

on canvases of old and

blend the colors until I

forget what I came here for.

It would take more than

the Sistine Chapel

to prove your angels to me

because we’re feeling like cranes

mouth full of fish

and holy in your sea scum.

Make me something

beautiful

till I deny them all

in favor of this

intimate folly

of the most incredulous nature.

Overcome this with brilliance

and see if I even bother

to turn my head

with a slow blink of

vacant eyes that are

seeing more than they’re good for.

Frozen Denials

I think inconsequential musings

as the wind breathes down my back

and whispers profanities

to shatter my naivety.

And he batters ceaselessly

against my fragile windowsill

howling in anguish

for the lost souls he carries.

the burden of the century

I murmur and he agrees.

And as winter comes

and he drifts the snow

-into banks and piles

fit only for a giant’s footstool-

allowing us escapisms

that we all claim to long for.

And we mutter and complain

and he laughs

a bitter laugh

full of all the imaginable cold

and pain and anger

that one can only expect.

He nips my nose

and spits in my eye

and he laughs.

My Friday Night Lights

I long to exist in a perpetual state of being

because I find such fantasies powerful

and incredibly hard to follow through on.

Instead I find myself tangled in knots

striving to express myself

but continuously falling short.

Emotions are overwhelming

and so much easier to disregard

and fill them in like cavities.

It’s difficult to have such aspirations

and then find yourself trapped

certain of your own incompetence.

I don’t even know what I write anymore.

Words were all I had

and now they’ve left me on the side of the road

with a too-big coat and a burnt out cigarette

and a sign saying “Take Me Home”.