Side step - Inside the Artist

Lost Settlement

Cement steps are more brittle
On the southern side of Oak Street.
Denim against pasty skin,
Icy even in late summer sunsets.

You know how it feels when you put your clothes on too early,
That “cling and stick” because you’re still wet?

You see, everything is cooler here
In this broke down place.
They’ll mark your tomb with historic curlicues.
“Here laid one warm body.”

Everyone lives to die here,
In this middle finger of this land.

We don’t pay for movies,
But waste around the back door,
Communing together – with broken pavement,
Crackle scratch of dead leaves.

We burn on with tapped cigarette
While paper curls and chill ash falls to stone.
We all smoke when we’re drinking.
Honestly, we smoke all the time.

Buzzed hard as the sun drops,
We forget – we forget – about the money
We all don’t have.

There’s not much work,
But lots of labors,
In this town.

That’s okay with us.
Dragging, drinking, puffing;
Bound together in one smoke ring,
Waiting to die.

Years from now, when they scroll up our tombstones,
Children will honor the cracks in the cement
Arms linked in the haze and scratch of leaves,
Clinging to the chilled bones of this town.

Lemon Head

The truth is, I don’t really like you
All
That much.

Catastrophic yellow vapor
Is poison and slowly
Pushes a little bit of acid
Around me,

You, like a semi-precious weapon,
So beautiful, so intangible, so tart,
Like a glass elephant in a china shop,
Bring this blunt force trauma.

My mother told me not to eat
Lemonhead candy –
That pretty powder enveloped in sour.

I mean,
No one is very beautiful with her lips
Pursed shut –

Up. You go on.
And the truth is,
Had you a real voice
I may like you a bit more,
Lemon head.

Rainbow Tree

Rainbow tree, can you see her?
When you shook, her fruit fell –
Not far
From where your roots
Stretch –

Beneath the earth,
You could hear her a little
If you tried.

When the autumn came,
Your leaves were so lovely, so wide
Embracing all that surround you
And spreading your tenderness

Around.
She could not call your name,
But felt you coming.

Rainbow tree, do you see her?
Do you feel her down there?

Beneath the solace and solitude?
Beneath,
Beneath everything in history
And the now-and-then?

When it withered and the ice fell
Not far from your roots,
Did you feel her dying too?
Perhaps she did just a little,
Leaving a piece behind,
Taking the red part of you with her.

Rainbow tree, when spring comes
And you can no longer see her,
No longer know her, her scent, or her touch,
You will weep beneath your broad leaves
Wet tears of joy.

Organ Donor to Do List

One: Read all of it first,
Even the fine print,
Or else the leftover
Will seep out into light
And do significant harm
To the recipient.

*Note – If the latter occurs, you may experience some discomfort.

Two: The guideline, source, and outcome
Are all subjects to change
At the request,
Or even an uneven gesture,
Made by the recipient.

*Note – You may experience nausea, increased anxiety, or depression depending on your hereditary predisposition.

Three: The procedure is not quick.
In fact, it requires profound patience
And site must be clean,
Packed tightly from the outside in.

*Note – If hole seeps, you may experience tenderness or fits of shuddering.
Green ooze is indicative of infection.

Four: Bear the hole.
You are now without.
Recipient claims all rights of disposal
Or promulgation.

*Note – You may experience suicidal thoughts or just sympathy pains.


Disclaimer:
Rights and details not for the public.
Copyright the brain.