367

21 dashes

And a smirk

What dread

That aura

Thick and drab

So glad you’re gone

Glad you’re gone

21 dashes

And 12 years

Helped and helped

For nothing

So ungrateful

So glad you’re gone

Glad you’re gone

21 dashes

And a twin

Just about

I watched you drown

In it all

So glad you’re gone

Glad you’re gone

21 dashes

And the ark

Ran aground

And a rainbow

And a dove

So glad you’re gone

Glad you’re gone

366

The hope of the pen

Is that you will one day

Come as a visitor

Back to the page

And marvel or laugh

Reminisce or launch into a tale

It’s quite like an architect

Who first sees as a builder

But later comes home

As a resident

Or a singer

Recording as an artist

But later listening

As a true lover of music

The pen among many things

Longs to be invited back

Longs to grow legs

And run hard and on and on

With life

 

365

I feel a strong need

To roll back that compliment

’Cause you really flaked out

For a few months there

Didnt you

And you were loosely-goosey

All over the place

Until you honeyed the pipes

And got your cash

I suppose you suffered

From clout-envy

Long enough

This will all fail of course

Because there’s no disguising

Poor character

So enjoy the pomp

And make the most

Of the circumstance

364

Could you just

Come away with me

And give your life

To something unsafe

Like a hurricane

Maybe unclench

Long enough to breath

And open your heart

To hug the sea

As you go down

Low and afraid

To the bottom with a howl

Know that I

On my wildest side

Am surer still

Than going blind

Oh oh pitiful searcher

What you have in me

Is the gold

363

I don’t like my life

What an unoriginal song

Those are not my words

Not here

Not now

Sadness can house gratitude

Mourning can encircle blessings

Melancholy can have rich friends

And a thankful heart can be depressed

So that’s not this dark

That’s not the right color or mark

What we have here

As best as I can tell

Is simply a new acquaintance

Appearing from out of nowhere

Who requires patience and time

And makes everything murky

For a bit

And the hope every day

Is for this new friend

To make their final departure

Never to be head from again

362

Is there an innocent sickle

Buried with the dead

Not when a mouth

Is also filled with rocks

A bunch of someones

Are trying to keep

The ghosts at bay

But you wanna speak

Don’t you

You wanna flit nervously

Like you like to like to do

And that’s tremendous

Cause the whole arena

Is dying to boil the cat

That’s had your tongue

For this whole long season

And the last

And the last

And the last

So listen then

If indeed there is a midnight call

Dance with fire in your limbs

And extra in your bones

For we are all afraid

You’ll just keep haunting about

With yellow sulphuric displeasure

And we’re tic toc dying

To see you glean

We’re hoping

To see you work and glean

361

A thud is all that happened

The crow fell dead

Sealed the whole area tight

No air

No light

Just labored life

A foot on your chest

Its as bad as everyone says

When that sprite

With stale breath

And muted voice

Bounces and flits around

With scraps of crippled promise

In the faint mirage of help

Saying “Do with it what you can”

”Do with it what you will”

And I will hate her

When I feel again

Cause she is a misery to me

She’s some kind of evil

359

Deep eyes have no wiggle room

You negotiate in vain

You’re a citizen.

You stay until

And for as long as

That one heavy breath

Is all you get

Submit to the pause

Lock lips with the stillness

Live long in the valley, Love

You’re too chicken

To die

So dwell

358

To enjoy again would be bliss

Oh what garbage

That a horribly bruised vex

Would leave me in such a state

That I’d ever have to say it

But I do very much feel

Like a demon in agony

Embarrassed and floating above

The hope of ever communicating

How bad it really is in hell

Yet those stairs lead down to my very soul

In this rat-a-tat-tat war

In this crying spell

Come, Calvary, come

Oh come