what i got from you

a body sense to get spitting mad
at life's little injustices
freckles
strong shoulders for carrying unbidden loads
a sweet tooth
blinders for plodding forward
not a thought of ever giving in
the love of a good nickname
and all it's variations
a blankness
a damp blanket between me and
a feeling
the irish goodbye
well, i'll be seeing you
and out the door
while the party rages on

POWER DREAM

sulking into the function
you presumably at the helm but it’s a hologram
once i made it into the room diamond eyes catches me 
off guard, we lock in, clarifying that your posture is far less powerful 
than I’ve been preparing for, you with your maiden girlfriend clinging
to your arm, no you to hers, her belled sleeve actually, she’s making edits 
to the menu in calligraphy birds flutter  landing on her lacy shoulder pads 
there’s all this cornflower smoke surrounding you guys it smells like the bad
incense from the 90s which you’ve just discovered, late in life and in the arc
of the world, because her spiritual family is taking you in and teaching you
about animism, which you devoutly absorb deriving from a golden retriever
catch on the beach situation
but diamond eyes who culls dead-stock specialty sportswear and sells it online
he’s gonna take me out with that money, spaghetti dinner, charisma reigns supreme
in this battle, and as i mentioned, we lock in

No Fault Law

Levity, for a ghost's sake

and what is a ghost

if it won't return  the

humanity to laugh at it.

I mean come on I'm 

snapped out now 

- look at what I made me do

forever cursed 

with the shower spray

hot on the small of my back

palm smearing down my face

til the bottom lip

peels over my chin

bad behaviour is cartoonish

and it deserves an appropriate

response 

they found me, 14, 

at my cousin's wedding

laughing at my reflection

in the toilet

it was the exception

not the rule

I've had fun and 

I've had nights

blinking in the mirror

until my pupils

return to their

rightful size

so, then, the role is this

and it is now it is

licking my finger

and dabbing at goldfish crumbs

it is rubbing more 

grease into the table,

cleaning makes it worse, let's

look around for more things to clean.

Zen Death Poem

 Zen Death Poem

Dear baby inside my daughter,

Today you are the size of a navel orange.

I am the size of a baby elephant.

Approximately.

Tomorrow we will be 

grapefruits and sea bass,

storefronts and windowsills, 

solar systems and flakes of ash.

You will be a table 

and your parents 

will be the chairs. 

I will be your hair.