Step out of the house, away from the garden, into the fray
silent one moment, ghosts next, parallel and bending light
where I walk now, she worked, and her, and her and her
all the ancestors, dead and gone, buried to fallow, alive in memory
are they particulate or matter? Footsteps alma matter, gravity nukes in gravy
we all explode in starlight eventual on the coming
you asked was I lonely? I replied; I have never felt more normal
among the emptiness, which is full
where nothing is false and forced, but still
hush against the churning of the mill
and if you were here and not beneath earth, and not decaying into dust
I should tell you of my day walking cities cleared of humans
how blissful it is to know our scourge no longer ravages earth’s bones
for we are pestilence, we are plague, we are the harbingers
not rats or civets or porcupines but us, us, us
with our viciousness and our thirst for conquer
it is still now, there are no book groups, moms with spandex
jogging with basinet so father will relent and not read porn
at toilet seat
there are no queens and kings, ruler and ruled, subjugate and fool
we are all equal in our vanishing and the air is not filled
with our hungry competitive squall
Orange Theory hangs off its hinges, the former sweating classes
shouting; YOU GOT THIS GUYS! YOU GOT THIS! Gone away
machines made by man to live longer, to have tighter abs
to find ways not to die
my rabbit heart beats at 98 bpm resting, my time is short
I am glad I will not make it to 100 alone
the cars are lain dormant and disused, husks of
metal with radios tuned to KW5 where the beat
doesn’t go on
I take off my confining shoes
I remove my zippered clothes
it is the first time I can stand being naked
Adam said to Eve; I feel altered, I have a sense of myself
it hurts to know so much
and Eve played on her rib knowing it was all a crock
of shit
you washed me once, when I had a bad fever
my long inky hair xylophoning down bony back
I felt strength in your arms, how without
speaking you calmed me
Jack In The Box is burning on evening news for no one
I add my ten cents to that hellish advent
Subway and their plastic baguettes have been
overrun by rodent’s intent on becoming
fatter yet, McDonald’s M has fallen and upside down
spells Woe in bleeding cholesterol yellow
all the harm we have bidden
all the things we keep hidden
we prayed for #Meteorite2020 and it came
blazing in the sky, ravishing other
candidates in its wake
as Biden said to Anita Hill; I don’t believe you
as Weinstein promised his fans; I will prevail
from his jail cell he swallows Covid by the thimble
last applause can be heard from Rikers ashen shores
our puppets have run out, they no longer want
to bash and bunch or perform at all
they sit wooden and emptied of hands and string
the carved faces of Easter Island long wondered
who made them? Where did they come from?
In the depths, large creatures begin to rise
their time is now, the monkeys ate their own
it is the due of others now, the comet lighting
sky with inevitable fatality
I hear a song I danced to once
wishing with all of my being, it were you in my arms
but it never was, it never was
girls my age, give birth on door steps
with boyfriends smiling from upstairs windows
I rejoice, my congratulate for their abundance
even as I give them The Population Bomb
read the part where it says what becomes
when humans pile one on top the other
and we still eat food that is bad for us
until it runs out and then we eat the very
dirt we discover in our veins
why did you take drugs? the doctor asks
and I laugh and laugh and laugh
for anyone knows, for everyone knows
the misery and the ecstasy of self-awareness
I’d give my legs and arms never to have
felt you on top of me that evening
such as it is, we watch sea birds devour band stands
voles nourish on cement, foxes take red bricks
all creatures of fur and fang
still the song birds sing their cantor
still I remember Watership Down
where nature is cruel to over population
and Myxomatosis killed the hare
Covid 19 or something worse will be
our eventual fate
so long as we spread our social disease and famine
raping the earth, slagging precious ore into
worthless tower blocks who vacant of dweller
stand like wanton hustlers of the night
thighs thickened with cold
such is our heritage and future
stars blazing before they are over
usher in a new dawn free of human kind
I give you my greatest secret
and you squander it first chance you get
it’s my nature said the scorpion
don’t you ever
ever forget
On Headline Poetry