--IF I CAN’T FEEL YOUR PRESENCE, LET ME FEEL THE LACK

  

No One Tells the Truth Anymore

There are roads here that lead to cliffs

and people know things they will never share
even if threatened at gun point.

Someone told me white is no longer a color,

but how about black?
I know what became of Pluto,
stripped of its rank after so many flat-lined years.

I can’t be bothered by any of that.

I’m busy crushing daisies,
counting the creases in my skin,
jailhouse hash marks of the days
I’ve been
without you.

 

Everyone Knows You’re Famous

All my friends are talking about leaving,

yet you’re sitting pretty in a pool of pancake syrup. 
I never understood why you were such a glutton.
Guardian angels hike up their skirts.
Little girls give each other identical war wounds.
Billboards and pool boys have each taken turns with your face
while I wear my broken bone structure
like ragged skeins of wool.

You needn’t worry so much.  People have comebacks all the time

and grace is gotten cheap these days.
Just look at your last man who
hung himself from that tree.
 

 

Nobody Wins

Across state they are shooting at the moon.

I’m never sure who is right and who is wrong
because I tend to crumple when unfairly ambushed.

My Dad’s clan were strong people.

Calluses like mitts.  Eyes that could cut cords of wood.

When I fell in love the first time

my sister said, “I should slap your face.”

All my choices have come with warning labels lately.

There could be a refuge for people who dance hard,
but I’ll never know.

In some countries monkey brain is a delicacy.

Here, we stiff arm cows while
hillbillies shoot down the moon
just to see whose side it’s on.