DESPERATION


I am a claw claw
turning against the light I love
my children in junk, feebly ejected
I should ask the heart shape
on a pigeon's shoulders, I should ask
anything that will not answer
for my foolishness needs silence
I am a claw turning to melt

Some dark agent stopped helping me
I leaned against the trunk weight
of a tree that held no burdens
the needles came down on clouds
no nurses were offering
I'd rather be the spatter than the wound
camped in a lampshade
love made in an armchair
a claw that forgot to scratch
nails turned inward on a yearless palm
the body inland or the body as a coast
let the waters lap around us while the kid's ghost
collects more ghostly shells

To die in the woods, where you were not born
some happiness sledding the cemetary
joint smoking on a river's rock
lichens blended with ash, in a blowjob dusk
enjoyments capsized gladly
in the tumult of the water cycle
dogs around a pond and the skinny dip disintegrated
drinking coffee on a branch
above a field of broken glass
while a battleship leans through stalks
wasps feather around their syringes
in an elbow of brambles

My friend wants speech to soothe miles
the cave where explanations cease
is growing damp, even the images there
are wet and wild with the blood
of many ages, he can feel
the arrowheads move as he rides the bus

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