who knew
the 6th mass extinction
on the planet
would be set into motion
not by a furious comet
instead thrown into chaos
by an insidious cloud
of misinformation
(que piano music)
Tag: failure
Categories
correct change
to quantify what 189,00 dead Americans
equates to within the psyche of this country
we must apply the correct math
due to lack of competent leadership within the White House
the COVID19 pandemic has been allowed to spread
across schools to cemeteries
into three Vietnams
or sixty-three
September the 11ths
Donald Trump should be made to place coins
from his own pocket
over the eyes of every corpse
he could have prevented &
perhaps the saddest notion is
even if the great king
cared to part with his shekels
our country will still be left
more bankrupt
from his mistakes
than him
Categories
pretty little things
there’s a girl downtown
gets passed around
she’s early twenties
but plays smaller
she hallucinates snakes
as demons prey on her
there’s a girl downtown
she walks around
bare from the waist down
hacks at her own hair
is fond of defecating on sidewalks
but the winos and scum
buy her pretty little things
so they don’t feel guilty
after
last night
shots rang out
slicing August’s midnight miasma
a quivering queen city listened
as Cherokee bells
echoed over cobblestones
black swan feathers topping lost hopes
filling horse-drawn funeral carriages
eighteen shot
four dead
blood pooling at the base
seven screaming hills
four shootings in Cincinnati
ninety fatal minutes
national news coverage
backlit red images
of our violent infection
suffer do we
these slings & arrows
whispering sacred prayers
to a god unlistening
please make
every bullet fired
explode into a spray
of evening primroses
Categories
absent without leave
who can sleep
through the raging silence
of all our canceled parties
it was a hot wednesday afternoon
i saw her downtown
this old high school classmate of mine
valedictorian of her class
hanging like a drying dish rag
on the pock-covered arm
of her fourth divorce
they looked like they had just driven in
from a northern shithole township
to taste
of the urban opioid market
oh,
merri smyth
merri smyth
full of
such
promise
please
tell me this
how is it
you are not
an astrophysicist
instead
a
mother of seven
living and dying
on public assistance
my smile fades
from the smell of
unexpected onions
fourth shot of whiskey poised
in my left hand
you rise in my throat
bile and reflux
but you are nothing
if not consistent
molested by the memory
of you
endlessly comparing me
to that damned bottle
of bourbon
wild
free
stately noble bird
amber eyed Kentucky royalty
worthy of addiction
who will kick your ass
if you don’t mean it
not for beginners
or the faint of heart
yet somehow
reasonable
and to hell with you still
i say
you and your Custer decisions
when you make your last call
last stand
each night
succumbing to the same
faulty strategy
sulk in your warm bath and remember
you lost to the indians
all on your own
(slams her shot in a way only bartenders and the triumphant understand)
Categories
sewing on lace
such grand gestures
of morning after guilt
you are capable of
buying every seat in the stadium
reserved for your bent knee apology
hindenburg full of flammable gas
floating overhead
scrolling about
how sorry
how sorry
how sorry
but it matters naught
indefensible drunk
i’m tired of sewing on lace
to what a dumb cunt you are