Licensed CC-BY-NC.
i thought you would warm me
calm me lead me and teach me
no one else talked to me like you
no one else shared my thoughts
no one else dared
no one else fought
no one else turned
the red wheel barrow
up on its end
upside down
and set it on fire
burning the contents: idols and gods and corn flakes
and blue jeans and mattresses and pay checks
and bridges and connections and my place—
so lonely i stared into you
read you caressed you
rubbed down your spine
to see you more,
more clearly
with each night turning into day
so full of wrong-words and
tables and shelves smashed
but no shock therapy
all plink of guitar string
or boiing of piano wire.
with a musicality of nouns and verbs and modifiers
we danced linguistically and wild
whiskey and poetry and dada plays and doom
until grammar fell apart
until i forgot how to speak without singing
the phonemes we learned
on school buses and skateboards
but it’s over now and i’m still alive
and punching a time clock
and punching myself and punching
qwerty keyboards and numeric 10 keys and radio buttons
completely ruined
hoping another great mind
in a great book
like you
comes along.
