Once Upon an Oversight

Give me a day

for you to treat

these fresh spring 

wounds of mine

I've been collecting them

in secret

in passing

by the roadside

where you once walked.

The pale

sick

sky

screaming overhead

and underfoot;

we don’t know where

we stand anymore

and you've exited that

dream of mine

a trillion times

where one of us pulls away

just as the other

becomes too attached

to breathe

or sleep

or slip further

into safety

or slide further

into the guarded

arms of regret.

Ego Dominus Tuus

There was a void

instead of the horizon.

There was a storm

in place of the sun.

The new sun

was a storm.

A black hole

with a cloud outline.

Handling the hail

we held on to hope

of better days coming.

There was a void

on that horizon.

There was ungular

damage to each sky.

The new end

to the new tremor.

A windless summer

in the breath.

Breathing in

ballistic barbs before

letting go of you.

Missing Sarah Tonin

Emergency opening

through the side

of an aluminum can

into a forest

of wolves and

dark.

And between six

stars staring

I’m watching hundreds of words

come falling flailing

or pouring

or streaming

from and out

of your eyes.

Trying to induce

your seismic fever to

break

using plastic spoons

and lukewarm water

until the sky cries open

snowing millions of shards

of glass down –

small enough to breach

your grimacing fingertips

undetected;

drinking spiders

‘til dawn.

Pixelated Virus

The smoke was dancing

as it left my lungs

and just like that

45 memories

that never happened.

One more drop of blood

to extinguish

or add to

the ever-screaming inferno.

And despite my windows up

it’s still snowing

in my car.

Here

it’s odd;

outside is even.

The river runs

diagonally

and you’re halfway

to December

through August.

Nothing could kill me;

nothing killed me

except that final shot

of absinthe –

too much laudanum

all on fire.

A Dream Within a Dream Dreaming

How much repetition

before we loop back

to originality?

You finally released

the locking sphenoid

that kept me clenched

to your ghost;

apnea aside

I rest easy now.

Now

I easily rest

aside apnea

and she smothers

me seldomly.

Sometimes

I can’t breathe

when I’m asleep

and I awake violently

to snakes and hornets

on my pillowcase.

I dislocate my shoulder

fending them off

before I awake

again

beside myself.

3rd and Union

I’ve adopted a new

singing style.

I should make it clear

I don’t sing.

I watched the water

beneath the giant ferris wheel

and felt compelled

to fantasize with my eyes halved.

Nine doors before you

before you

and I don’t know

what I’m trying to say.

How do we say this?

How do we harness the wind

that carried me here

and carried my fear

and flew the colossal walkway

seemingly illuminated

to the dead end

of waterfront public seating;

from the west coast

to the Midwest and now

and earlier

and the shivering organs.

Town Guys and M-Rods

Drinking ashes

out of an aluminum can

I know now

I only have two original bones

in my cryptic body

and they both need

chiropractic manipulation.

Like a series

of zippers stitched

diagonally

to the left half

of your brain,

we got caught on

theoretical threads

and scurried off to the stream

to fall in love

on Lucifer’s blackest beach.

I was wearing

your best lie

wrapped in muffled

confessions;

I couldn’t read your crooked

kiss –

like (you were) saying

he’s a beautiful writer

vs.

he writes beautifully.