--I KNOW THE TUMBLEWEED LEXICON

 

 

The Other Side of Damage

 

In the frail below,

I find our bedsheets hanging,

a Scrabble board of blood

piping strong in its center with

a 70 point word score for icepick.

You have left the engine running again

and now dead crows are dropping like flies

around our anorexic rosebushes.

Which dentist implanted keys

inside your teeth?  They glow

radioactive whenever you sneeze or lie.

The cat is flirting wide-mouthed with

my confidence and conscience.

I make myself less

full by ripping out my intestines.

With a sailor’s knot here and there

it becomes a jungle gym rope for

people like me to swing from.

Whose flying monkey is that?

It keeps slamming into the picture window

going Thwack! Thwack!

like King Kong’s erratic heartbeat.

Stand still for once and I’ll

paint you without colors.

When the moon grows chubby

it will all make sense and

the machete will whistle sharp

announcing an intervention.