poems

 

I’m trapped in a room where my baby dies

and I feel the weight of it in my hands, brush my thumb against the smooth side and curved point, where dull marks bleed onto my skin.   Trapped in a room constrained by time, with a paper half marked up, and my baby fading in my fingers.   No time to question if the […]

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Stockholm Syndrome

When the smell of a new roast and the itch of grey cotton against my shoulders stir a tranquility equivalent to that from lavender incense.   Correlation ironic, obscured, like a poem held captive between 4 and closing, where syntax is found inside something prolific, like fine coffee grinds or an early paycheck.   The […]

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Patience

A chair sits solitary, its cushion and legs casting a patient shadow in the space to its right.   Sitting.   Patience, where feet do not rap the floor, and legs do not grow restless, and body cannot shift towards a more comfortable position.   But a tickle silently tremors its base, growing, invisible, waiting […]

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English Breakfast

It takes time for the tea to heat up. Until it does, don’t pay mind to the outside sounds, screaming, spitting, spewing, obscenities that could crumble mothers’ hearts like lavender-lemon pies, fumbled between fingertips that finally learned the meaning of opposition.   Only about a minute more. Maybe mixed with honey and brown sugar, and […]

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Monsters

I heard that the perfect magistrate would judge him like a Kantian and punish him like a Utilitarian;   Maybe then the world wouldn’t be so fucked up.   Maybe then the cosmos would shuffle into line, and karma would sync up with consequence and justice would act as an engineer to the defective functionality […]

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Tattoo

India ink harpoons its way into fabric Strung around alabaster bone, Staining an olive cloth with polychromic significance, Injecting an artist’s rendering of alternative beauty Between the stitches Of an otherwise ordinary material.   And the canvas draped down the side of my neck Bends toward the needle Stationed between veteran fingers, Tissue yearning to […]

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From Inside Your Diet Coke

I saw my friend a couple bubbles to the upper left Rising faster than the rest of us, A few fluid ounces higher than at which I float right now, With a skyline view of the rapidly decreasing culture of Bubbles below.   And I mourn her morbid fate, And I mourn the loss of […]

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Recipe for the Average Misanthropist

Skepticism drips like rotten milk perspired between my fingers, Dripping, melting into the pool of this concoction; A makeshift mix of miscellaneous things, This recipe that will soon be the mask I will lather on my lips, A liquid filter, A cream-based shield To protect myself from my words.   It catches “BE YOURSELF” before […]

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Past

The worn wood splintered against our backs, Skin itself splintering by overuse, restless labor. Shoulders weighed down – Sandbag upon sandbag of shameless hostility And forced submission to restless sleep – For the fragile, patched cotton against our backs Did nothing to protect us from the splinters. Shelved between two wooden sheets, Insubstantial cuts of […]

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Subject Regimen

Information is fatal at a certain dosage. Beneficial in its initial droplets, Three teaspoons pooling at the barrel of a syringe, Glowing bright green and laced with the brilliance Of a more promising Generation. Just the right amount Stimulates gratification, Irrevocable ownership of a substance That may not be robbed By probing hands. Development of […]

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