RESPONSIBILITY, UNDERRATED

what if

I chose to forgive.

burrow, to the belly

scoop this

sickness

by the handful.

I think it would

feel like ash

yet, jet black.

Powder everywhere.

I would weep

as I dug.

scraping all the sides,

to remove

every trace

Begging to be washed

free of all the

hurt

and anger, incinerated.

Released.

I guess, I do not always remember

that

it is my own job

to

free my own heart.



THEY WROTE ME BACK

I'll sit on the bus

and feel cold

glass on face

and simultaneously,

a man's deep baritone

rumbling too loud

talking too much, about

Portland.

food trucks, micro brews, and

vegan stripping.

Who cares

about your post-feminist values

shaming and

I remember when I was

drunk and applying for jobs

as a dancer.

Also shaming.



THEY COME IN THREES

1.

I swallow this thought

wet, and thick,

like an eel.

oh! (your sweet slumber)

you do not deserve

me

 

 

2.

As the drones must be

driven from the hive, come

winter, so too must

you

 

 

3.

I wonder, how many times

will I have to learn

the lesson; just

because a fruit falls from the tree,

does not mean it is

sweet.

I CARRY THE WEIGHT

I have plans to

 make plans

(lists of lists to write.)

weary of their cultivation, ideas sown in the soil 

they are fed acrid resentment
and only brief sparks 

of lucidity.

I look at your feet shuffling

a rhythm.

I meet you there.

Patterns must be dismantled
 bit,

by bit.

Fingers busy.

teeth chew on lips, hungrily,

anxiously.

yet pulse
is no where to be found.

EVERYDAY WITCHCAFT

What I was told:

face of a fox

and do you

curl your hair

wait, no

maybe it's straightened

open me another beer, okay?

I'll spend the whole night folding origami animals.

I'll build you a zoo.