It's ok to write poems and put them here

One of the cousins visiting from Australia, WOW!
Give me some football snark, I have some genuine upper ground
I fed you fish pie, AT MY MOTHER'S HOUSE!
Like, I genuinelly cooked a fish pie from what was available AT MY MOTHER'S HOUSE!
It got late, you whipped out the whisky
Cus apparently you'd been on the west coast
I forget what distillery, but I just called it "pleaseantly peaty"
"not peaty at all", you said
Ah fuck off ye smug fuck
Just cus me & Mark can't afford these bottles
But then when drinks were taken it all gets political

I said "so yeah, seems better now in Australia, from what I've followed?"
"Albanese, better than Scomo?" "NO!"
"They're all EVIL!" "yeah I guess I agree..."
It got quite cool when you called for "REVOLUTION!"
Less cool when followed up with "...or Demagogue..."
I deliberately went out to smoke, missed the end of your sentence
On reentrance: "what Trump got right..." I had multiple pairs of eyes looking at me
It was only that one hand on my chest, I got it, maybe sit this one out
When he started some shit about immigrants
My mother joined in, "both sides" yeah whatever
I brought up the Tasmanian genocide, he started fucking fuming at me
I lit a fag, walked up the street, sat on my sofa, petted cat, wrote this

btw SORRY KM, THESE WEDDING FOOTBALL COUSINS TURNED OUT TO BE APPARENTELY MASSIVELY RASCIST! someone bring me hard drugs right now

i hate when that happens! but not your fault.

So I sat on a sofa, in a weed house
I was half (eh prolly three quarters) cut when I arrived
And IT WAS LOVELY! Lots of positive vibes
UNTIL! (yeah obv there's an UNTIL!)
This kid (NOT Kid, another kid) who (I think?) lived there said something like...
Like...
(forgive my poor memory, I was half-cut, at least)
"It's just words, words can't harm anyone..."

So I went into a rant, can't recall the specifics
(cus, well yeah)
But it definitely involved the Rwandan genocide
And multiple references to the use of the word "cockroaches"
And machetes, far too many machetes
Possibly the holocaust, I forget
but definitely Ricky Gervais, "Gamergate", JK Rowling and spitTwitter
(blehblehbleh, wash your mouth with another tin)

The one thing I remember, the old guy who was the actual tenant
(I know he'll be 70 this year, cus he's the same age as My Mother)
(I know cus his daughter told me so, fuck is this another tangent? Kill it at birth)
(just this one time we were talking about the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park after Brian Jones died and they both NO! NOT RELEVANT!)
This guy who was silent all evening
Applauded me at the end of my spiel
His son sat there, I could see his cheeks burning
I stood up, made some flamboyant gesture and left

Last night I overheard my mother talking to a cousin, in the kitchen
On my way back from the upstairs toilet
Apologising for me, said "he only sees things in black and white"
"it's because of his disabilty"
I gritted my teeth, went back to the party room
Poured the wine I acquired from eh long story
Pondered on that statement tho, even when I got home, yknow she's probably right
BUT I WILL NEVER APOLOGISE

Fuck the Queen, Fuck the Pope
Also fuck the fucks who write "Fuck the Pope"
Fuck the children who throw rocks at Curtis
In fact, fuck everyone who isn't Curtis

He maybe has longer legs than me
But is eternally the Little Spoon
Singing Kettle in the village tomorrow
Some family going, me and Curtis said FUCK NO thank you

That cousin had an objection about Qatar
No, not the basic slavery deaths
But apparently one referee is from Rwanda and female SHOCK HORROR!
Imma shut up now, maybe die in my sleep

Rubbish cups, squint the buttons look like tinnies
Curtis can't keep eyes open, Áine either
I chucked the Lucky Pirate Socks, worth sum total of fuckall
"beacons" yeahnaw, we might burn down your house tho?

(6'1", apparently. pffft...)

Sample and hold? Story of my life
Just happy to have a younger riding the filter knob
We walk in Pub, That One Lady shouts "IT'S HARD BEING JOHNNY MUMBLE!"
I was trying to gauge the sarcasm level before I decided how much offence to take

Some Jacamo Fuck thinks he can criticise my physical being?
I caught the eye of my eh Secret Sexual Partner
He blinked something to me in code, I didn't catch it
But then started fluttering his lashes to the beat of the jukebox

Threw in the occasional cheeky syncopation
It was the cutest thing I've ever seen

In Silence
they’re still waiting

to unlock the gate
to the theme park we made
and turn on the rollercoasters
just for us

The machines would whir to life
in the dead of night
the time they prefer to work
when our bodies are on autopilot
when our conversation dries up for a while

Our midnight passes indicate
we are visitors from the mind
We shave our hair in the parking lot
and float into the park like holograms

Our dim shades look just right under
drooping strands of pale christmas lights
tracing the paths of old waiting lines

winding toward the biggest rides
waiting in this emptiness
walking among the dead
and what was left for it

you and me, passing between our dreams
and my stomach is somewhere back there in a ceiling

I played JUKES in the panto, he had Megadeth lyrics on his sword
(personal choice), never helped my backstory
You shaved my trousers, I guess I'll think on my feet
The bottoms were blown off by FUCKEN CANNONBALL!

North Wales is the land of my forefathers
But the Mearns is the land of three of my four fathers
Black Bart has like a million glossary references
My Mother has apparently one, hid her face when the notebook crowd asked

Operating on one eye now
Why? WHY? Ask yer cousin's Plus One
Jilly John is now mouthing off
Anyone understand French please expain it

MY HOUSE. MY RULES.
One of them is DON'T BE BRINGING DEAD ANIMALS IN HERE
Try to bog me down in semantics about the contents of my fridge
Whatever, but you're not entering holding THAT
Oh OK, you're just gunna sit there on my lawn
Scaring away... wait... who am I expecting?

I cut every Fascist and Bigot out of my life
All I'm left with now is Creeps and Bullies
Everyone decent scarpered to London
Everyone half decent scarpered to Glasgow
Out of those left, anyone with a driver's licence
Just fucken DROVE, I guess til they fell in the sea

I've spent time in London, I've spent time in Glasgow
Those times were filled with Fascists and Bigots and Creeps and Bullies
So I guess I don't understand the Exodus
If I try harder to be better, could you please come back?
Yeah YOU individual, I don't care about the rest
Show me the list again, I'm ready this time

I mean it.

"Deal with it!"
Pure distraction, point then flit
The main problem with your brother's coin game
Is the constant crossing the road

Moue, "who, me?"
Barrel of bunting sat there for free
Pass the Duchy left until it falls in the sea
And pray nightly it drowns

In high school when asked my solution for our situation
I proposed swordfights for the tallest hills
Everyone laughed, I was King For A Day
But now I'm 42 and googling "swords buy uk"

Don't come to me with your teenage bullshit
Maybe cut off your ear, that will surely impress her
Paint her a picture of some random shit
Just don't go out in the fields, they all look like DEATH

I used to see Angels, like full-on actual beings
Lurking at bus stops, or memorial fountains
Fuzzy shapes, they made my eyes water
If I looked at them too long

I mean, I called them angels, to give them a name
I am now fully aware that was the onset of mental illness
And in my wiser years I know not to point such things out publicly
Doesn't matter, I don't see them anymore

These days it's all about the Black Cats
Constantly lurking in my peripheries
A comforting presence, if I don't think too hard
Force ghosts of my favourite boys

Face North: DEATH.
Face East: DEATH.
Face West: give me one good reason
(I will never face South)

You walked in the room muttering to yourself
I heard "(somethingsomething), only one left now"
But I have no idea what that could be a reference to
Certainly nothing related to HERE or ME

"What were you up to last night?" I forget, let's check...
Oh, arguing on the internet
With Some [alt-right adjacent] boys, they got no respect
For me or my loved ones

I remember writing those verses for (I assume) you
but I don't remember exactly what I wrote
I remember signing some shit for your crew cus they asked me to
but I never knew exactly what I was signing

I'm sure we'll find out eventually

My position was shaky right from the get-go
Ever met anyone in real life who says "potatto"?
Ah fuck it, cut the child in half
I'll take the part flipped the bird as it bled out

Shouting numbers out loud while I'm trying to Deal With Shit
You think it's hilarious, me less so
But that 4/4 THUMP THUMP constant beat
Hides the fact you only really use one meter

Hides the fact you only really have one master

And a multitude of your other sins

Yeah I'm comfy here, please stop asking
This window points the same direction as mines
OK true, I live at a higher elevation
So mibbe keep an eye out for THE FLOOD

Yeah I've warned of THE FLOOD, I'll stop going on now
"Is it a metaphor?" Who even knows at this point?
But every morning I catch Curtis squinting warily at the sky
And he knows a thing or two more than you or me

I'll be fine for this evening, hot and cold drinks both welcome
If I stand and turn I can recognise windmills
But answer me one thing (phones allowed for this question):
When is this rain due to stop?

Hello Glasgow Folk
I travelled south to get here
Thank you for the pavements firm beneath my feet
Thank you for the bushes in the park that I will sleep in tonight

Thank you for the secret vodka in the secret shop
The one the they give you when you ask for "the cheap one"
Thank You specifically, the one of youse taught me that magic trick
I wouldn't have made it without you

Maybe that would've been better
Til these questions started I thought flounder was a fish
You say you never hounded anyone out of anything
You're hounding pretty heavy right now

You should have some respect for the OCD masses
Put a double N in your made-up word
You're speaking aloud, how do I know that you didn't?
I can tell

I CAN TELL

Gird Up Thy Loins! Don't give me that shit
Short shorts then big shirts is how I grew up
Still working on that coal to diamond process
I was shaving in a pub cellar (until it blew up)

Long story short, I deboned fourteen chicken thighs
Muttered "fail better", cus I couldn't fail worse
I walked in the side door, saw your hand on treble twenty
Biro cheat codes on your forearm, bleeding through your shirt

I hit on a random til they brung up the flute shit
Then whipped medallions out, flashed the broken teeth
Your partner's from "Melbin", ask them say "Embra"
Then punch them in the face, shout WELCOME TO LEITH

Medication scarcity is fucking up our day-to-day
Your auntie's youngest still available to me
Eyeball the youngling whilst ignoring that one thing
We're both flipping coins, I bet we die on the same day

Keep up now son, you genuflect, but I genuinelly just checked
You're exactly (to the day) ten years younger than me
Proselytize but tell no lies (I see your father in your eyes)
Comparing tattoos (whisper) I got mine for free

Exhalation, procrastination, sceptical of fashy-nation
You have more towels than maneki neko... but it's close
Lying on the lino fucked on amaro and vino
I've done a survey, we have more scurvy than most

Sorry, that was terrible

Lino doesn't rhyme with vino, for a start

When you briefly stepped away
(to the fridge? to the toilet?)
I took a sneaky peek at your notation
Written on graph paper, three colours and so much geometry
I heard you coming back and rapidlike took my spot again
But I got it
These days I want you to to know, I got it
I don't understand it, but I got it then and I get it now
Fuck, I could show my (SCIENTIFIC) guitar solo chart
Or my double-sided chord progression wheel
(but not before I patent it)

One side major, one side minor

I mind all them righteous rocks you threw
I mind when you claimed every word was true
I mind when that guitar was shiny and new
Most importantly, I mind YOU
You had a different name then
But the same offbeat nod
The same involunantary twitches
The same way you'd glance sideways
Raise your right eyebrow
Whatever goes down
I'm still Team You

(ok, I woke up to that drunkenshit unsent in the text box, I kinda hate it all, especially the misspelling of involuntary, for once that's not deliberate)

I had started on At Last! A Poem About My Cat! but now I'm in a mood and deleted the whole thing. Also had some note about how discussing the opposite of onomatapeia is NOIOSO, it was very clever but I couldn't figure it out

The savage youngers close in on my lawn
I stay silent, interlock my fingers, drop to my knees
Yeah I threatened to kill him
But I added "in Roblox" so I'm legally sound

I'll be walking high street by like latest tomorrow eve
Smirk across the pub at the chud fucken narc
Wave a knife at him through two kitchen windows, that's legal, right?
Rope the kids into a Busby Berkeley routine on the tarmac, find a specific charge for that

Pick it up like some Ramsey, drop it like it's Franco
I've got more fingers than my Granda, sitting pretty pretty
If you didn't go full tankie in Disco Elysium
I can't even look at you

You've been spielling now for dunno hours, the shadow hit my foot and I stopped listening
I still don't believe Darth Vader killed Martin Luther King
Save your platitudes, I'm Christopher Walken here
Look outside, flash count, 11 enemies and one chainsaw

Eleven faces, twentysummat eyeballs tracking me
Scarper to the hall, you'll miss me kickflip off the wall
Yeah that happened. I have a witness! Oh, she passed out
When she wakes up youse pair can debate the length of my dick

I took a walk round the estate, re-entered to the same Batshit
Checked the running time, fuck you're only halfway through!
Knives don't require charging, what was I up to?
Don't ask, winkyface...

Just checking with tu padre, che é vero, che non é vero
How rapid is your brother rotating right now?
Same old sammiches, same old quotes from the same old books
If you continually stand in my room I'll continually raise whatever eyebrows I have left

Cheapish chinos, she wiped the blade on them with a finger to her lips
Then we both plastered on the grin, Simultaneous "HELLO!" as you entered
Checked the fridge, not giving you that, hell, definitely not THAT
Brew you black coffee, this is a dairy-free house, you heard!

Ned Raggett once said:
"I don't believe that radical subjectivity obliberates the platforms
so much as creates a series of dispruptions within axioms as chosen"
Now, ask me how I recall that word for word?
DECADES LATER! I didn't look it up, I swear
That shit is tattooed on my heart...

Dammit I realise I fucked up the literal one sentence that I wasn't meant to fuck up. "to be tested within limits as chosen", I thnk the end was

Is it time for a redemption arc?
Let's me and you talk a walk down the park
I can tell who's at the window without turning round
(different bells have different sounds)

Drummie Games, an annual tradition
Just keep the shades on, no one knows who I am
After a point stop explaining to Canadians
"Heavy Stone Throwing" is an actual event

I'm holding right til the end of the level
I'm holding this baby til her mammy returns
I'm "Holden Caulfield"? fuck you, am I fuck
I'm holding nothing, forget it, I fold

Still better than A Child's Christmas In Wales
That horse skull still haunts me in my sleep

Debate hitboxes with the scurvy kids
Try to not look impressed at the scorpion kicks
The Good Witch blessed me whilst I was lurking on the left wing
Pearly curl, but in return, never talk to those people again

"finish your thought" sounds more aggressive each time she says it
Each time an extra word gets an exclamation mark
I can take it, I know she's got my back
When the Nardise close in she's taping a torch to her shotgun

(metaphorically I mean)

"sounds unlikely" I said whilst smirking
The cops left but that one boy still lurking
Imma carve a swastika into his forehead
Then get off on mental incapacity

Or whatever...

First off: that's an exaggeration
Second off: it was entirely justified
Third off: ok, it wasn't an exaggeration, every word is true
Now I've said it out loud can you please remove the handcuffs?

Why are the neighbours contacting the other neighbours who contact My Mother when I'm away from my house for like four hours?
I mean, I know that particular wifey is a KIDNAPPER
The cat can sit outside, it's particulary clement wether
Flick a fag-end in her back garden as a sign I'm home

Day One (yeah I know say that every day)
My Mother owns no pearls to clutch
We play "The Xabi Song", it's not called that but we all in unison mutter his name over that other name
And when youse all leave I will raise a glass to his memory

But pour nothing out
C'mon, that's wasteful
Curtis just stumbled and acccidentally hit a certain piano chord
It was the sound of DOOM

Last one is called "Nothing Is On Fire", or "The Dangers Of Playing With Knives", or possibly just "Autism"

So I'm working on a new language, it's kinda latin based mixed with scandi but then transcribed phonetically by a computer, this is what we'll be speaking in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, imagine this coming to you from some RPG NPC:

Noonky partson ventry dakky
Dammy undro kwalky sommy si?
Yaya, "kee", canfar ulty zaza ney
Tosi "dungbanny" nen farfaran nenty

Ba septi mes darnar

Undre, drakko, trick, fan
tis sorly frakken de ney
Mik prolly mik bond
Kapshi, tempy venty?

(your clues are the the last line is "did you know, the storm is coming?" and you can see the counting to four line. Work from there)

This is tough going, trying to write poetry in a foreign language + still keep the flow + also establish new words as needed which must follow the etymological formula. Kansky = maybe. Framty = future. Cordy = remember. I've retranslated "undre" to "preem" as new details emerged. I've wrote 4 lines in 6 hours. I need like 8 more whiteboards and a gofundme.

Foory sol kansky nunky de foory
Voo framty mig, forfanny da hey
Jully preem, sunnerary por preemy
Neme cordy tally por "bank"

So I spent all morning trying to translate "numerical midfield superiority" and eventually came up with "siffry park vint", and now I've forgot why that was important. The other thing I got today is "dalto" means "sum", in case that comes up.

I eat poop for breakfast
I eat poop for lunch
and when it's time for dinner
on poop I munch
I love the texture
I love the crunch
and when I'm feeling fancy
I eat poop for brunch

what were you thinking
what were you drinking
when you signed
on that line

they appeared in your video
you name dropped them
on the radio
right on time

how can we trust you
seems that you will do
anything for
money

product placement
paid for your basement
rumpus room

Lying on the lino, 6:40am, I'm bringing sweaty back
You walk in the back door, look down and roll your eyes
YES I've been to bed, [rapid scan updown your body] unlike SOME
Yeah, sofa sounds good, there are cigarettes there

Stop your nipping, I had a heavy day
I touched three dogs on the head
And went in two different shops and zero freaked out
YES accompanied by "Her"

Also established the bigger eggs are laid by the rescued chickens
Squinted and Columboed that out

I wish you'd been there
Just so I could see your approving gaze
And the mildest of smirks

That's how I know you're proud of me

I walked in late for the drummer tryouts
Lit a fag, said "give me a mammydaddy"
He did it perfect, I said "you're hired!"
And went to scrounge up a drink

My hands don't work right, at least the destra doesn't
So it was always mammydamammyda
Which sounded fine, but was not what I wanted
We need someone with SKILLS

I never turned up for the PA interviews
Started drinking from stress, walked the hills from stress
But I precoached my preferred candidate
Smoke? Cats? Just say "yes"

But, like, with more enthusiasm

No, not that much enthusiasm

OK perfect

The Young One says I swear too much in front of children
I denied it, then with unintentionally comedic timing immediately shouted FUCK OFF FLY!
And stumbled, gesticulating wildly
Because some beastie was trying to investigate my inner ear

Oh yeah, I do recall barking WOULD YOUSE PAIR OF CUNTS PLEASE NOT!
When two flies landed on the Moscow Mule that I had painstakingly prepared for you
But I only swear at insects
And anyway, there were no children present then

Exhaled, went to wipe my shades on my shirt
Aw shit, I'm not wearing a shirt
Is there any way I can flex my way out of this?
Prolly naw

In fact, good point! Why am I not wearing a shirt?
I'm sure I was at some point
This heat... [turn towards sun, wipe brow dramatically]
Makes SAVAGES of us all...

HEY KIDS! Did you ride on the tractor?
Pronounce flykiller like it rhymes with Dracula
Pretend to know the difference between a Jaguar and a Jazzmaster
btw, the name of this band is IMMEDIATE VOID

Spurn the GUITAR children, sus chords are sus!
But minor chords are my old friend
Who I love but don't quite trust
Not to fuck me over in the end

Sorry for the swears, all youse Mammies & Grammies
I know you don't see me as Father Material
I'll just give a sly wink to those two Ladies
Whom I'm PRETTY SURE I fathered their children

Oh, this star, saying "REALLY STRONG"?
I stole it from that cheese stall
I think I merited it
Damn, I'm somewhat drunk...

Woke up on the sofa at Stupid O'Clock
Stumbled to bedroom, The Livingston boy snuggled into me
Never opened his eyes, just said I smelt of perfume
Yeah I do, he knows fine well why and fine well of who
He smacked his lips like a schizophrenic
Laid on his back with all limbs askew
I slept for like 2 hours
Woke up to LOWING, is there cattle in that field now?
Could do with a Caprisun
Who's gunna fetch it for me? No one
Get up as gently as possible
Still disturbed the cat and the kid
The feline ran to the kitchen, expecting breakfast
The human flipped on all fours, muscles tensed, ready to fight
He denied it later, but he DEFINITELY reached for a non-existent knife
I worry about him
But I know he worries about me more

There are many reasons against suicide
Like, the lives left behind that it ruins
having made no sense of it
it wasn’t our fault
many reasons not to do it
it was no one’s fault
we live with it
pushing the glass off of __
I’ve had that crazy feeling too

It gets so quiet
we don’t need to believe
because it already happened
we saw it together

I worry that I have forgotten the wrong things
but I am happy to forget so much of it
The scorekeepers lost track
How many steps until the next switchback
They’re already up there
I wave up and they don’t see me

Junkyard kids
Tripping mom on the restaurant porch
they’re going wild at Dodger stadium
no one wants to leave

Miranda July
asks where to find the bodies
making it through life

I thought why not me
knowing some of how to cope
after revivals

One becomes the sea
wearing down the thickest rope
all-encompassing

On thin lines of smoke
lifting above fingertips
reliably vanishing

Or going for broke
fully expecting hardship
quick hands stuffing coats

Sick of the clinic
Born apart from the wild
more or less alone

Life is no picnic
it is an angry child
with dry hungry lips

Now I feel riled
— stomach is sick, truth be told
two steps from a slip

Please stay a while.
Or go back out in the cold
funeral trial

Too young and too old
I asked for nothing but money
through the turnstiles

Oh, the last time we met?
The Pig Racing and the Ferret Roulette!
He can smirk all he wants
We both decreed it UNETHICAL

He's away for "a think"
I think you're meant to buy me a drink
I assured him we're not fucking
Though we occasionally touch thighflesh

I hadn't worked out who to hate
When he asked me to "collaborate"
Threw me off my heels when I was Going Through Stuff
"Just take what you need, I hope it's enough"
You're welcome

I need to go for a stroll
Try and track down that secret grove
Sit on that stump, prolly smoke, maybe cry
No particular reason why
Maybe die there?

Yeah you can enter, but she can't
Cus this is MY FUCKEN HOUSE, I KEEP IT PHARISEE FREE
Yeah I can parse further, but not til she takes THREE steps back
Cus it's also MY FUCKEN PATH

Don't mardyface, I'll stab that right off of you
Just cus you share the same daddy as me
And a former bedroom, just not THIS ONE
I remember your sobs while I was being abused

Also remember the last time (he) was round
You LITERALLY hid in the backyard
I made polite, for twothreenine seconds
Scored more Korean gear than you

You had the better hand that time
I think?
A socio wife
I maybe pick my life

You spied my cashcard, called me out by my government name
Yeah I go by my middle name, what of it?
My first name gets me punched in the head round here

My first name designates me as Catholic
I mean, I'm not, I grew up CoS
But went to Catholic school in a Catholic place

So my middle name is safer, but then obtusely
I wear my medals outside my shirt
So still get beaten, but at least I'm asking for it

I secretly appreciate it, it helps me focus

I need to focus
To clear up something
Somewhat easy to miss

Some would say troubling
In its insidiousness
Insular forms of reasoning

Insofar as it can be glimpsed
At all, the new calamity
Calling out to the senseless

Coalition of the willing
Fools we have known
Knowingly voting for cruelty

No one answering their phones
So some polls got unreliable
Unrelenting pessimism soaks to the bone

Unreadable offenses to thoughtful souls
found in the local paper’s op-ed sections
set aside for professional trolls

Suffice to say don’t read the comments
where the point is to keep the lies aflame
Afloat and unextinguished

A fly could feel more shame
Slipping in while the window is closing
Clinging to clothing and lacking a name

I Share My Bed with a Large Dog

After I’ve rumpled the sheets
wrestled and tossed and turned
After I’ve seen you shake in your dreams
and pulled you back from your apprehensions

After the deep breathing and chests heaving
stretching and whining and wide yawning snores
After the first sun shows on the ceiling
slips down the wall, the dresser, the floor

After your nose starts to sound like a whistle
I raise my phone to check in on the weather
After you have seen me move you feel better
Your brown eyes wide open and paw pads like leather

only after that —
and after the your sharp elbows rib my core —
only after all of that could we crawl out of bed

I’d stuff my pockets by the fistful
With stones known for nothing less
Than cleaning hearts out clear as crystal
Returning them new and baby fresh

I’d unclench my fists and feel a new absence
Tension loosened like overlong lasso
The sense of heaviness vacating the chest
Like long sustaining chords on a piano

I’d tear down the dust choked carpet curtains
Open the windows and let the cold thin air in
Take away all of this furniture, I don’t want it
Let this space take a full measure of its emptiness
Unadorned and full dimensioned
Strip the paint off, every last bit
Leave it to be whatever it is

version 2

I’d stuff my pockets by the fistful
With sharp stones notorious
for cleaning hearts out clear as crystal
Returning them new and baby fresh

I’d unclench my fists and note the absence
Of age old tension like an overlong lasso
Lying on the sand and dripping on the fence
The sense of heaviness vacating the chest
like hanging chords from a detuned piano

I’d tear down the dust soaked curtains
Open the windows and let the cold thin air in
Take away all of this furniture, it’s not needed
Let this space approximate its emptiness
Unadorned and full dimensioned
Strip the paint off, make it raw again
scraping straight through to the empty canvas
The underpainting shaping the form and the content
Unrelenting waves confusing and enchanting us

Drills and hammering and echoes and shivering
We left too loudly and came home whispering

rain as a noun, rain as a verb
rain on the soaked wings of a bird
rain on tin, as seen through a thin umbrella
on the cold lake
on the cold tent

rain in 4K, osaka at dawn
rain on the drought patched lawn
rain out the game which won’t be replayed
bouncing off plastic helmets
muddy puddles on hard clay

rain so i can evaporate
rain on the spot where he lays
rain like it has never fallen before
coming in under the door
pushing up against the floorboards

rain scatter our travel patterns
slippery green, serpentine
rain filling up the old ravine
up to the ankles deep, trembling
rain make us clean

rain unaccountably
overwhelming the systems of registry
overcome efforts to understand
rain and suddenly go, freeze on snow
overwhelm the world we don’t know

rain down in the catacombs
rain drip off our lips as we kiss
offend the dead and spirits unseen
we dance the dance of unforgiveness
rain on my suffering, rain on my last chance

rain until we are entranced
rain on your wedding day
break me up then steady my hand
cover my sidewalk, make me slip
peak through the door and see me sullen

keep going and going
scare off my daylight
give us a free carwash
cover it up, rain make it okay
rain keep falling, rain wash us away

I’m embarrassed by what I might do
If you would like me 2

Everything in me is now on sale for free
There is nearly nothing I would not rearrange
Without question, quite openly
Everything within may be removed or amended, without hesitation or prior permission

I held a grand reopening of my body
And it was poorly attended
I overheard them noting that there didn’t seem
To be a significant change in my construction

I hoped the ease with which I discarded my beliefs
Would be described charitably as adaptability
And was glad when it wasn’t part of the conversation

Would I disavow what I knew to be true
If you would like me 2

There is no coherence in the center
Of an oblong shape with a wavy perimeter
Unevenly balanced and laboring strangely
Like a pilot at night with a broken altimeter

So tell me what to do and I will change
I’ll preemptively meet you halfway
Repetitively, paradoxically
Until our atoms are just about touching

How I’d latch onto your line
If you would like me 2