In this small clothes shop you have to be quick, the changing room doubles as the lift.

While you, a fork-tailed swallow, zip to Mars
on winds that energize the emptiness,
I founder under imitation stars,

lamps turning night to day, so minicars
and men can snake their way amid this mess.
While you, a fork-tailed swallow, zip to Mars,

relishing rocket salad grown in jars,
enjoying a low-gravity caress,
I founder under imitation stars

to nap with rats, surrounded by the scars
that score this town of broken bricks — unless 
you, swallowing your grudge, will zip to Mars

with me in tow. But, no! Our stormy spars

I hardly recognize myself anymore.
I look into the mirror and I see someone who is scared and alone.
All I care about is the pain I feel every day,
the medications relieve them for a period of time.
I have become pale and fragile as plastic.
Why do I have to go through this?
Why?
My energy and strength have all been whisked away
All I have left are a few strands of hair on my scalp,
before chemotherapy drains it all away. 

Love is what we have Love is what we give Love is priceless Love is eternal Love is overflowing Love is not a one time thing Love is everything

That was the distance he drove,
twenty-three years ago,
to see me.
    
A small number beside the miles
he drove with me beside him
in the bright, gone days.
    
But far enough, that one day,
that he sat waiting
in the driver's seat,
too tired to stand up.
    
And I, heedless,
cannot even remember
what I said to him,
or he to me.
    
Now I wonder how far he traveled
to want to see me
one last time,
but never tell me
he was ill.

There’s peril in the signage, yet visitors enjoy the turbulent black sea. A benign lust grows malignant in chains. The elephant thrusts at the ground with its tusks, as though saving itself from the violent voltage current. It hurls its trunk up the sky amidst a thunder as the loudest slogan of protest in the universe. It doesn’t need a calendar.

mommy 
i miss you
i hurt you 
im sorry
i just wanted to let you know
that i will always be with you
no matter what i say or what i do
i really really do love you 
i sit here and think of all the things i have done
now i see they are not the right ones
i know you miss me 
hardest thing to accept
but i miss you to 
i hope you know that
i need to do right 
i understand
but sometimes its hard and i just cant
mommy
i love you just gotta let you know
a whole 15 years 
wow its hard to believe

Ask for a Security Deposit



I said: micromachines make my skin crawl.

Don't worry, said the Dr.,

they'll just rent one lobe temporarily.

It's true I need the money.

I collect tea cups.
My tea cups collect dust.
Dust collects time.

Time collects me
in tiny chips
fractures

stains.
The price of age
and drinking.