+ To prove I’m not a spineless soul-sucking fame-obsessed sea urchin
I have my wits about me, but I’m an artist too. Here’s something I wrote:
Homeless Romantic
Comfort’s drunken tongue whispers near my ear and
when i beg for the thrust, the hands push and i fall into
the loving embrace of the wind. i awake hours later after
a breathless jolt in the hideous union between gravity and the earth; all abandon, concussion
and bug bites. you’d think i’d figure this out by now, but i just love
the smell of false hope, and ohh, i can taste it on the tip of my tongue!
i always lose my shoes in the process and
i never think to wear a helmet.
but the train always comes back for the stowaway,
a special place for me with shadows and the rats
where i can sing my mourning glory and
build my own fire, goddammit.
because i’m baptized by wind
i spit on the suit of armor, speeding past the sailors,
with a squinted eye and a switchblade etch my name into the moon
where the cherubs mine the bones for all those pretty little hands
joined and raised, hallelujah!
when the lovers aren’t looking, i pillage, i pilfer
and stash the harvest in the dark of the train car
and my splinters grow from the inside out.
in all fairness of the game, someone’s gotta hollow you out
who better than me? i run with the wolves and i
sharpened my teeth for just this occasion.
“everyone, no reason to be startled, just ignore the racket
back there and everything’ll be fine. the conducter will toss
her overboard when she’s dead. she won’t hurt you, but don’t
listen to a thing she says. we’ve taken precautionary measures
for the passengers’ safety; try as she might, she can’t chew her way through.
next stop, plant city station.”
they say things like i can’t hear them
oh to be defenseless and civilized.
i clean my shotgun every night because no one
cares to take me in.
i store my heart in a bottle labeled “faith”
but i drink it dry all the time.
but tonight, i toast to you,
the star-crossed and lip-locked,
sound your complaints while you seep in an idol’s bodily fluids
meanwhile, i mark another mile with splashing glass,
stark-naked and no-lipstick sneer.
to trust another man who can’t ride the rail or to put
a bullet through the eye of the beholder.
