nope

turns out my love, true

is not a twisted branch

tree floating

on a hanging

island

like above clouds—moving

in slow hover rhythms

nope

i like how this all happened

to me without the thinking

something came in here

turned the house (my soul)

its parts

upside down

like a big old party happened

inside my face

ha

with the umbrella outside

upside down

catching next-day light

and

some of that morning stuff

bending the books back

in a page

nope

i like how this all happened

turns out my love, true

has no edge

bends like a

smiling burrito

wedge of ice

or glass faces

all blinking

disco grits in

synchronicity

plus

or minus

bragging rights

there is a god

and

it is up to something

supergood

keep looking

keep looking

Smiling Like I Was New

Smiling Like I Was New

Smiling like I was new

I sat there

full of fish bones and a tanker of panic

I was your summer nightmare

with some tail wagging

and

a happy ending

somewhere

and I stank of bad decisions

and, well

you loved me

and I knew when I knew that it was true

that the ride was soon over

that hell ride I grew comfortable in

and now

now here we are,

here I am—

my love—

see…

Those ghosts and I

we aren’t talking

for good

not since I drafted myself

into this army of the living

this battle for the days

hands clean

the only blood loose

running through my veins

heart on fire

gnashing clichés

I say

“I am closing this cemetery,”

what?

did I stutter, no

nobody is laughing

eat my dust

I left

throwing my hand to the air to catch the bar

bar assembled left and right

attached firmly to the wheel

wheel spinning against the sky

I closed that lot of gone

bogging it with a brick as if it were a hole

For Once,

the sea rings its bells on this blast of beach

in my mind, where the tide goes

its gusts long

and

tampered with by mischievous drafts

this house of spirits

this place of holy or sacred love

this new beginning I mistrusted

no,

you may not have it

this is mine

but

if you must

go forward and find this in yourself

because

when I said there is no hope

those words,

they betrayed a faith or else why say it,

I was wrong too

no,

those ghosts and I,

we aren’t talking

and

I am closing this cemetery in me

for good

because

I broke my porcelain baby doll head

erupted

floor dropped from speeding arms

doll like heads

on this thing in me

stubborn

in love

riddled with faith

smiling like I was new

Whale Ships

Whale Ships

glorious sun

my imagination is an entire city under siege

it is under the control of my doomed snickering will

my crooked laugh

ah fuck