sweaters & swears

Like Sugar Like- Sandra Doller

                     I can spell anesthesiologist but not marvelously

                    —blimp—

          Meaningful meaning
          +
          meaningless meaning

          ‘Everyone’ is always an exaggeration

The story of a student who walked onto the field a man
and left a woman

The story of faux bois
fake boy
don’t prick your finger
I make slices of cake

                    “…think that sugar is more important than simile”

          The heart is a dog—do you feel that?

Salmonella-infested waters
he doesn’t know what happened to her bod—

He paid her killers to kill her
rather than with pangas
he was spared
because he was =

                    “It’s not a negation—it’s a celebration.”

Who eats who
like a government child

Man years
bad moons
no mores

I’m a balloon,

each minute you don’t call is a breath

you blow into me.

- Rebecca Lindenberg

RIBS

bit the bottom of your  rib cage

trying to feel the rib

that was never there

the dusty blood

invading your space, instead.

You always say you  created me

from the mud that formed each lobe

and follicle filling up the

air that had no breath.

You never needed that extra

bone.

(((((Use what you lost

(Pounding the

humanitarian reminder

that sub-sects of

sub-species rarely

merit the time blotted

to mark a space in the

earth.)

))))))

A curved line saying

you claimed this property

before you even opened

your eyes.

Punching Lessons

I learned how to punch

hot white-knuckle tosses

in the gray sharpie-loved

cubicle walls

of the Girl’s bathroom

that sat on the border of a sleepy

stretch of orange carpet

mysteriously stained

by second grader’s

blanketing grubbiness.

           *

I tried to fall out of

the crappy crayon cage

with my teacher’s nose

pressed against

the glass of my

toe-bobbing

test-taking skills.

            *

My classmates would

try to pet my dark, curly bob

tactile telling me

that I did a good job.

            *

Everyone was trying to search

for the silverback gorilla

that they said rested between my ears.

                 *

I shouted through the

three-inches of transparency

that separated my chapter books

from their picture-filled stories

                  *

I bit my cheeks so much they

bled.

I forgot how to speak.

                 *

Tears dripping

hot behind my eyes

storing every word I

couldn’t sputter out

               *

The metal finger

locked me in with

the unlidded toilet.

My hands gobbed into fearless teeth

cutting though my skin and

breaking into the

wall as my tongue

slipped through the bars.

             *

I heard myself

and my forgotten choke.

Fireworks held too tightly in our mouths

We held the same

Independence scars in

our mouths

`

Our teeth were

overlapping

sidewalks that

had gotten too hot

and grew all

swollen

`

We tripped over

the lips of

the pavement

when we couldn’t

see our feet

stomping on our

skinny shadows

and knobby

knees jack o’ lantern

lit with

cockroach scabs

and a crooked

mouth.

`

The jagged mouths

our mothers

had to clench

in two hands

too large for

their bodies

and marked&spotted with

years spent

bathing in the

mud of soapy dishwater

& the mud of

the ten-mile high blades of

corn

`

Forcing their

long, calloused fingers

into the secret

sides of our

peony cheeks

so we would

be able to show

our secrets

barred

like fangs.

We were frozen to picture books even though our arms were warm

It was too cold

so we frosted ourselves

together trying to

save our humanness

       (animalistic howl

                             you were never worth

                                                       as much)

    We froze to the

hardened earth&

we could not move to save ourselves.

                    *

Move up and down

to get warmer

                    *

Forget the existence of your

limbs

You were never as rooted as you thought you were

                    *

We wrapped ourselves in one another

as we faced

a darkness that was

white.

The First Thought

The first thought

that was ever uttered

was a one-word phrase

“Why?”

     *

As he searched for the

answers that

stuck to his wrinkling

flesh,

he realized that the

passage for his truth were lost

     *

She was stuck behind a screen

& could never leave

the labyrinth of pixels

to answer his questions.

     *

Each day my stomach

grows larger

but my skin grows thinner

I  can only hope

to escape what has

been their self-destruction

by holding the truth

before it slips through

my hands

like a forgotten puddle

on the corner of a street

Carnival Prize

I

I was told that I could discover

the force of a tornado

through footsteps&

a stolen

     *

  (what lines give directions?)

     *

He gave me a goldfish &

told me it was

lucky.

The scales

did not weigh in my

hand but

were reflected

his eyes.

     *

Each moment

I am without sound

I can hear myself

in growing nature