not enough heat, not enough pressure (20170204)

blacken your heart, dear
take those cold ashes
from the hearth, flames dead
like a field mouse in winter

blacken your heart, dear
mix the soot with tears
remember every slight
every gaze that passed over you

blacken your heart, dear
swallow that thick paste
wash it down with past shame
and feel it settle in your stomach

blacken your heart, dear
let that darkness spread
but remember this–not every
piece of coal becomes a diamond

physics 101 (20160906)

if you were to survive
falling into a black hole
the experts tell us
–and by experts i mean
neil degrasse tyson–
you would be spaghetti-fied
stretched from the edge
of the even horizon
all the way to the center
of that dark star

it might take forever
to reach the singularity
and who knows if you would feel it
pain is information
and information stays stuck
on the inside of horizon
and time stands still
or seems to
on the outside edge

all my assumptions
about you
are just hawking radiation
boiling out into space
maintaining a screwed up
sense of equilibrium

we can’t make contracts
with the devil
to prevent the heat death
of the universe
we’re already rushing away
from ourselves at the speed
of light

sonnet agley (20160825)

i don’t want to know how things are going
not with you–not with your resurrected life
i have little interest in knowing
if you’ve given your hair up to the knife

i can’t scrape up the enthusiasm
to hear you talk about your latest trip
once i thought it was because the chasm
widens–a bridge of shoddy workmanship

but really all i can hear is white noise
i feel a constant pressure on my skin
‘neath water where leviathan enjoys
the dark saline fluidity of sin

sunk deeper than any of neptune’s pools
my leather heart blossoms in bleached spicules

tin toy (20160731)

step one is inserting the key
in the back
and having someone wind you up
every goddamned day
tighten that spring
so you have enough energy
to make it
until the next wind up

i don’t know who designed us
to have these holes
in our backs
when the holes are in our hearts

and when will the key fit into my chest
so i can wind it myself

or not

sojourn in flesh (20160725)

i want to be made of metal
and electricity
i wouldn’t mind the rust so much
if i knew it were coming
if i could clean and polish
the rivets and oil the joints

but unlike the woodsman
i can do without the heart
with it’s complicated gears
incessant ticking
always needing a gentle hand
to turn the key to keep it beating

even better, a data bank
–please, god, not the cloud–
would be a fine sanctuary
to store my mind
to let my consciousness expand
i promise i won’t
launch any nuclear anything
or ever go rogue
i won’t even bother you
asking for a game of chess

——

for
The Daily Post
Daily Prompt: Sanctuary

saltwater (20160628)

begin in water
a stinking slime
of protein chains
so many links
of uncut summer fat sausages

emerge from the last life
dripping wet and bloody
emerge into the next life
pave the way
dripping
wet
bloody

our veins, rivers
leading to the ocean
of the heart

the salty water of
our throbbing veins
our throbbing heart

one ocean with many names
one heart in so many chests
we float
we drown
we float again

——

for
The Daily Post
Daily Prompt: Water