You always single me out
Like a lone bird on a wire
Melody and a liar
Rationalizing the sale

You always single me under
Layers and layers of fluid ocean
Melody and emotion
Surfacing from all the swill

Scratch scratch creep purr
Scratch scratch until
Scratch scratch scrape and bellow
Scratch scratch scrape and bellow

You always single me in
Like a locked door imagines
Melody and a passion
Intimidating and long

You always single me through
Follow through to the limit
Melody and a critic
Accrediting the whole song

Scratch scratch creep purr
Scratch scratch until
Scratch scratch scrape and bellow
Scratch scratch scrape and bellow

Even in my dream
From an afternoon nap
I fought for
Comfort from confrontation
An apology on your chest
Thumbtacked in place
With 10 screws to 10 fingers
And your taped head
Crying and crying for help
My help
What does the back hall
Of my mind know so well
That I should know
That you should know
What I’d like to know
Is who kidnapped you
And why

I just want to pause a moment
And let the world know
That I don’t care
That you don’t want
To do what you’ve been asked to do
I don’t care that you don’t like it
That it makes you uncomfortable
That you’d rather do something else
I don’t care
That it’s stifles your creativity
Or that you can think of another way
To do it better
I’ve never met a great leader
Who didn’t learn how to first be
A great follower
So choosing to let your disregard
For the request, orders, commands,
For the job expectation
Is tantamount
To turning in your resignation
I can compromise once or twice
As I have
But at this point
You have decided
That you don’t belong
At the table
Your “I don’t want to”
Does not trump my
“I want you to”

Ok. The truth
No. I’m not ready
Just because the door is open
Doesn’t mean the caged bird
Will ever choose to go free
The truth would injure you
And get me crucified
Life ended by truthifixion
Ended at the hands of a crowd
Not ready to hear
Not ready to know
Unable to comprehend
All the colors of the colors
So we, me and those like me
Paint in abstract generalities
The autobiography can never be written
This side of glory
Never
Never
Never never

Dollars will test
The wheels on the bus
It did
It will again
To wreck
The leaning
All as one
Will happen
We all agree
So if I polled
And if I asked
Would greed and greed
Say me
Would time carry well
Or matter at all
I’m in no mood
For the testy

Bruised and damson
My soul
Running along
Flailing about
Barely alive
And a roll
Under the tire
Would wear
Gross dalmatic wings
Would rummage
Through the dal
Inches then inches
Two digits deep
For a ring
For a ring
For a ring
For a crime
Of gorging
On soup
And belching lies
Lie liar lie

Goat voiced and wired
Fading to the bend
So very different
And thin and thin
Horse from the whiskey
Branded I fear
As a secular waif
From a heiress of fear
Tone deaf and inward
That can’t be denied
But onward’s a spirit
Inside Inside

Fly-by, Fly-by
Not much but it is
Am I to be grateful
For a fly-by
There is no query
There is no glance
Not even an interest
Just 6-feet of distance
Lovers and clingers
And longers and leavers
Are fly-by, if fly-by
Not much but it is
Am I to be grateful
For a fly-by

I am soldiering on
As the fifth
Delegating all glee
To a lewd line of levity
A thousand bands
Agree and agree
That a cloud-stretched hand
Is still far shorter
Than the gad-about lot
And them sugar packets
Couldn’t even help

I tripped into last
Happy to have never had a chance

There was once
Something stunning
And fascinating
About the stretched neck
The open mouth
The steady stare
The quick strike
The chomp
The crunch
The breaking bones
And the quick quick end
Back behind the shed
In the pin
I remember tiny red-beaded eyes
And the smallest flaring nostrils
You Delilah
Wretched Delilah
And one baby
After another
After another
After another
Save a limb
It is the fifth sin
Playing on repeat
With a limiting shell
And nothing else