Skipped drinking
Never could find a seat
At the bar
Skipped driving
Crashing everyone else’s
Car
The wrists barbed wire
Barbarous world
Convict the girls
If I grow tired
For the male empire
Masculine empire
If I fall
Just look away
Feel the shame
All damned day
If I break
Cherish what’s at stake
Don’t forget to take
What is made
Can’t forget to get paid
The shaking hand staid
Shooting up in the terminal
Flight delayed
Addictions relayed
The children crowd in suburban street
Plastic fork paper plate
Knights of the round table
The soft water burns the pores on my face
I love you most
Ensnared in your curls
The span of your Arms
And the world In Between
The cold sweats of hell
And the burning of thighs parted
Wide eyed
When the child asks,
Why must the dresses burn
And why must a love of literature
Turn me and my agency
To kindling?
Or any curiosity of a child
Wriggling beneath the surface
Just as entitled to the answers
As yourself.
It makes me nauseous too
The way they turn away
Disappointed
Like a disease
The gangrene up her arm
Severed above the elbow
To keep from spreading
Keep very still
Maybe they won’t see
The little creatures
Passing knock knock jokes
At the front of the bus
Their small signs of admiration
Their shadowed affection
Spreads like hellfire
A pleasure to the eye
But nothing “beautiful”
The words buzz like
Time
You get lost in a story
No
A government document
Pit filled, unedited dribble
Only to find you’re dissatisfied
When it ends
Looking back
At the camps
Fondly