The people across the street like to ****
in the glow of their window late at night.
To catch the eyes of passersby they try their luck.
For pleasure of attention bodies twist in light.

My neighbor’s doing a man’s wife from down the street.
Skimming the pool, watching TV, his thought
is captured by the parking lot, their private retreat.
He delights in how close they’ve been to getting caught.

We’re all actors. Welcome to the production.
Once we were handcuffed by hypocrisy.
Now our lies are the source of the seduction
and the cuffs are kept in the closet with a DVD.

And so they go again tonight in the window brightly lit.
We look and nod and sigh and ask “Is this it?”

The clock is a map with one
direction. Pushed forward,
struggling, tired. The world
wakes up when I’m asleep.

Deep in the fight I always fall.
I step on the tiger trap clapped
in darkness.

The world wakes up when I’m asleep:
Vultures land in the streetlight to
calculate equations.
The moon sprouts tentacles and
hums like a Theremin.
Neighbors swap houses and tell
secrets on the radio.
Rats make stunning echoes in the alley
speculating on the market.
Psych ward saints sneak past nurses
to swim in backyard pools.
Pampered suburban trees hold spectacular
wrestling matches.

My eyes open with a snap like
being slapped instead of kissed.
And every time I wake there’s the
same longing for what I’ve missed.

I agree. I avoid Walmart like the plague.

Thank you (((Army & H )))

How many of us would it
take to move the Wal-mart?
Not the sort of move by petition, court or
protest but to push it like a shopping cart.
Just a few inches, maybe a foot to start?

How many around the giant box digging
fingers to foundation? A million muscles
tighten like wound springs until the
concrete block sings and whines. Until the
things inside quake and rock.

Stock topples. Indentured slave-made
shoes lay with soles to heaven. Sweat shop
shirts fall into tired heaps. Fish sticks
leap from the freezer case in a spray of
frost. Bags of chips are lost, smashed like greasy
dominoes.

We inhale dust and grunt. The building jerks. Weight
shifts. We lift left inch by inch and let it
drop about a foot from where it was found. Sirens
sound in the distance. The sign falls

apart. Now it reads “al- art.” We know it will be back.
We know. But for now this is profit’s mausoleum. For
now, this is our museum.

Someone was talking behind my back, I heard it while I passed, If you’d
Only ask, I’d tell you the truth about last night, but your story is likely better than
Mine, right? And
Everyone has mornings like this…sure that if
They died, they wouldn’t be missed, oh
How we’ll belittle ourselves
In time, in time we’ll be able to tell the difference between reality and
Negativity.
God, can you hear me? Cause I can’t see or think or
Feel clearly and
Every time a warm soul is near me, I
Enjoy the peace that begins to steer me. I’m more of a
Lover than you probably know, I’m more
Sickened than I could ever show so here we go
Over the hills and to the rainbow, I’m
Faking moods again
Faking moods again
Taking on every gem stardom has to lend and when you say
Oh, we used to be such good friends
Don't dare speak the words near me
And you’ll feel this out clearly
You can feel this out clearly

(((H))) very nice

Thank you (((SKPCG , s1ow & RJR1 )))

I’m healing
and you’re slipping away.
It’s cruel, to force me to choose
between
keeping you alive and killing myself
or
letting you die
and living.
I don’t await your phone calls
Saturday with the sunrise in my eyes,
I skip songs we sang together
in favor of the newer, the less
overplayed.
The jagged edge of stolen love
is stabbing me less frequently
about the chest
and has reduced itself from an unbearable
shredding
to a dull, constant ache.
And it’s the truth that I think of you
several [all] times [the] each [time] day,
but your face, a love scar on my psyche,
arrives less and less in the company of tears
and more with subtle, secret smiles.
I’m healing,
and you’re slipping away.
Your voice barely echoes in that place
between sleep and waking,
and I don’t chase it.
I choose to live.
You’d want that.

Me too

Where is your soul? Soaked into your bed?
Your thoughts are so old, wrinkled with words I never said
You spoke to me so smoothly, assuming that you knew me
Of our exchanging of air under the sun
Of a midnight dance, although we’d already had one
What is it that graces your mind and compels you to speak like this?
Is it loneliness? Is it wine? Impersonating bliss?
Which crimes against the body and heart
Do I reasonably deserve?
Which lines did you memorize for this part?
And where did you find the nerve?
Beads of sweat collect on my thighs
I feel so foreign in this place
With no real concept of time
And only a blurred vision of your face
There’s nothing I want more
Than to turn you into the thing you’re best for
Put you in the place you belong
And turn you into a quaint little song.

lol...ok!

Thank you:
Mirror
1956
SKPCG
IamMe (a little bit of both, maybe? lol)
Cavatica

when you are gone
i feel as though i will crack in half
these hot summer nights
tease me with thoughts of you:

your heat
your warm places

i fear you will not return
you will go astray
i wait among ghosts
and remain faithful

from the third floor,
i watch for your return

Aw, thank you (((pkd)))

Thank you (((Invisible & s1ow )))

Imagine you dive into time and you lay
Motionless on your back. You
Stare at the dark sky above you and
Obsess over the facts. Which
Are so vague you want to cry, your wild
Nights will haunt you. You’re playing a
Game with yourself, when you
Really don’t want to.

You try to place yourself there, where you mumbled those
Words, but it all seems so
Irrelevant now
That your whole body hurts. You can’t
Have him like this, leaving stretch
Marks on your soul. You can’t
Entrap him like this, with your
Integrity on parole. You
Can float here
All night, wrinkle your skin with
Negligence, but who do you
Think is winning this fight when you’re
Busy swimming in the past tense?

Rise from these waters
It’s okay to be unclothed
No one cares for your facade or the
Glorious endings that you wrote…things are
Messy right now with
Your heart beating loud, but you’ll make it through
Somehow if you can just climb out…out of this
Emptiness and back into
Life, which has been waiting
For you, worried sick
Tonight. Crawl
Out of your head when it’s
This possessed, look
Around for a towel and get your
Little body dressed.

Keep your moonlight lap
Tucked away where you can later look it
Over
Your spirit is
Over there, waiting to
Understand the explanation that you owe her

Thank you (((beauty & pkd )))

I’ll let you think you’re
Fooling me with
Your speeches, so well thought
Out . Your flame less fires are now
Undeniably cooling me- and I’m
Starting to wonder what
All the fuss was about.

You seemed like a doorway, put
In my way, because you simply could be
The way. But now I
Sit in this empty room with
Nothing to say
Other
Than I guess I could have just stayed.
Right where I was.
Instead of coming to this loveless limbo where I now
Give myself
Hell over all that was. All
That I thought there was
Is now just another name for the books. Another
Girl and guy passing each other the most awkward of looks. And yet
Under this table, their legs know no difference
Each pair, restless, but each
Spirit, listless.

So why can’t we go home together tonight?

I think I heard you explain, but why don’t you
Try again -because I still
Can’t get it, of course I want to be your friend.

And more. So just take yourself away from me,
No one else will stay with me, I don’t blame you.
Take your touch away from me, I don’t
Blame you, Take your love away from me, I don’t blame you, I
Envy you. You and your maturity.