from now on
i am going to write
“I hate what the world has become…”
in the memo
of all my paper checks
Categories
Tag: Suffering
Categories
myths & legends
normality
is a concept
invented by
a pharmaceutical
company
Categories
the shape of a man
fathers day
is a black hole
the shape of a man
filled with regret
alcoholism
and horrific choices
as a child
sitting cross-legged
before our mammoth television
on seventies avocado shag carpeting
i would stand quickly
run to the old wooden zenith floor model
slamming a soft palm
into the black and silver power switch
when i became overwhelmed
scared by what i was seeing
thereby reducing
the horror squared
to a tiny speck of pixel light center screen
that in moments would magically
cease to be
calm returned
now at 36
i feel much the same way
about the state of humanity
about the state of the dying world
we are the most grandiose fools
to ever crawl from primordial ooze
there is no button to be pushed
i’ve had my fill
i don’t want to see anymore
“Did you ever wake up to find
A day that broke up your mind
Destroyed your notion of circular time”
-M. Jagger, K. Richards
she runs up the stairs
retreating to her office
after dinner
afraid to drink the water
which may or may not
contain a death plume
emanating from a rich man’s pocket
along the elk river
slamming a rolling stones cd in a stereo
to hear sway
then presses her spine against the locked door
so violently the door knob eats her kidney
ice and snow covering all reality
even the inside of the television
weary of real and synthetic
human suffering
celebrities are the rhinestones
who bedazzle a pile of human excrement
a letter on the table says
her rare native american genetic type
is a bone marrow match that could end someone’s suffering
but they don’t know how recently she’s been
to the sickened shores of new jersey
something will soon blow up in russia
she thinks
and her boss will be too far away
to take any of the shrapnel to the face
her poetry is pissing blood
and the suburbs are a carcinogen
killing us all too slowly
black and white photos
of my ancestors line the walls
of my mother’s lavender bedroom
standing stoically on the farm
or in front of the church
aged beyond their years
their eyes filled with poverty
defeat
the fear of god
tobacco
polio
and pine boxes
not much separates a kentucky wedding
from a kentucky funeral
the country steals your innocence sooner
if love is a little girl
who emerged alive
from a tree lined morning
after being left behind in the darkest woods
to be eaten by wolves
then i have loved
if life is pain
exposed to the bone
so excruciating
i must write it down
building
sentences from it
to help me withstand
the weight of existence
then i have lived
and given the world two sons
god
do you not remember
your believers were sold
a blink of an eye apocalypse
these centuries of suffering
are bad for your image
you must do better
you’re a plague away from
even your most devout
buggy riders and catlicks
questioning your methods
i always thought you’d be taller
Categories
sharp teeth
he tells me in his deep vibrato
i am a merciful vampire
and repeats my name
over and over
as we sit in the cave
roasting meat and wearing fur
intent on tasting each other
there is no poetry
in what might have been
the affliction you suffer
is the retribution
of your outraged nature
your rebellion
is plotting to burn
it’s well polished shelf
please know
there is no pill to remedy
a life slipping by unlived
no syringe of dreams
potent enough
to run warming peace up your veins
you are the merciful god
who will end the torture
within the pit
sublime discontent
transmuted into chapters of ink
will be your salvation
and the will to build a door
Categories
crucifixion
the word
passion
by archaic
definition
means
suffering
this explains
why men
are nail driven to
crosses
and poetry