imbalance

here comes a familiar sadness
pushing its way past the prozac

she bought me a zoobombs t-shirt

love is a moment of sheer terror
when you've lost her in the crowd
and your heart skips a beat
and your head is but a well-oiled swivel
begging to find a flash of her bare shoulder
one that could belong to no other
a lonely, dizzying moment at the comfort zone
everything frighteningly magnified under black light
sticky floors swallowing each step in luminescent molasses debris
gentlemen reg takes the stage
and the crowd swells in a furious tangle
you wonder if she's eying the room in desperation for your messy electric hair
fluttering chords slam your ribs as the walls roll and tilt and sway
for a minute there, you lost yourself
when you lost her in that crowd
and right then, as both of your highs reach the ocean sky
and the sea parts for a tiny instant
you spot her there
between the blurring heads
her eyes already fixed on you
she is a beautifully sound structure
and you race to each other like magnetic bees
only better
and you say, "i love you" and smile
and she says she loves you and smiles
and you hold each others eyes
for this is the first time either of you have said it
and you both know that both of you mean it
and both of you feel it
and you know that love is a moment of sheer panic
because you know now that you can never live without it

scattered

i broke the glass
and took you out of the picture frame
kissed your one-dimensional lips
and sucked you in
took my lighter to the hem of your dress
i watched as you whispered and
burnt my fingertips
and wondered what you said
from a one-dimensional ledge
i spilled you on the floor
and rolled all over you
whiskey in my belly
ashes in my hair
we slept right there through the night
and i brushed you off in the morning
i guess the wind picked you up
and took you away somewhere

an ode to the joy of the charge

o where art thou fair visa?
its digits ring like the finest harps in france
when rolled off the tongue
of the lady on the telephone
as she traces the lines
of the raised lettering
like the gentle touch
of a mother lion's caress
o where art thou fair visa?
its date of expiration floating in the distant future
its curvy limbs of a signature
sprawling in every which direction
contained to a designated rectangle of white
oh where art thou fair visa?
without your divine electronic entry
my pockets are merely a sanctuary for dust
and lest we forget - lint too
yes, these pockets are merely a sanctuary for the dust and the lint
without your divine electronic consent

above the road

today, my friends and i went shopping
well, they went shopping
i quietly slipped away
down a glorious alley
and climbed the fire escape at massey hall
to read a kerouac classic
sipping yonge street coffee
subscribing to outsiderdom
the sun kept me warm
and the words kept me high

oh well

deadly tresses of golden curls
we've mutilated sincerity
jammed it's head on a stick
on the lawn for all to see
like a flag flown in victorious bits of history
we'll stuff the legs in the neighbour's mailbox
can't wait to see the look on the old guy's face
expecting the sunday paper and a telephone bill

martina

there's a crack in my guitar
it's all that i have left of her
and now it's going too

don't tell the landlord

i woke up on the wrong side of the bed
so i dragged it to the other side of the room
that was the wrong side too
so i dragged it into the middle
and hopped over the headboard
that was also the wrong way to start the day
all that was left was the foot of the bed
i'll let you know in the morning how it went

simply michael to some

nothing
absolutely nothing
makes me feel better
than when my father
refers to me as "son"

i've never been able to explain it
but it's the most honest thing
i could ever write

i've never shared that with him
and i never will

that's what makes it so special
he doesn't realize the impact

therefore
his motivation is always pure

letting go

i'd love to see her
just one last time
even for just a minute
just to say goodbye
to wish her well
to say i'm sorry again
to tell her how much she means to me
to take in one last memory
just to keep the wound open
before she moves overseas
a heart across a pond
sadly i didn't make the cut
for the going away invitations
it's ok
it's her day

surprise!

how do you write a poem
about the perfect girl?
sometimes words just won't do
sometimes you're better off
just sending her your ear in a box
it makes perfect sense to me
and it did to at least one other

flat tire at high noon

in a seedy bar
in a seedy city
with a seedy group
seated in a seedy booth
seeds are planted and take root
somewhere
in a seedy church
in a seedy town
with a seedy congregation
seated in the seediest of seedy pews
an entire generation swells to the size of michigan

bawdy language

i saw her in a bakery
she saw i was a forgery
"baby will you bake for me?"
she hawed and wouldn't wait for me
i caught her on the corner
candy lemon hosiery
waking up
is the moral of the story, see

pipe dreams

i lost a dream
down the sink
it slipped off my finger
so i listened to the cure
and cried myself to sleep
so that i could find
a tighter-fitting one

kindergarten changed my life forever

it's taken me all damn day
to think of the name of the girl
on the receiving end
of my very first kiss
her name was taylor
it was her first kiss too
i was at her house for a play date
we kissed in her closet
she had long blond hair
she was very beautiful
we kissed twice
we didn't even giggle
the world had definitely turned for me
i wonder where she is today
still breaking hearts i'd imagine
once we kissed in the classroom's playhouse
i gave my pal a joe louis to stand guard
come to think of it
those were some pretty good kisses
considering we were only in kindergarten

the pre-dawn dance of the hippocamus (genus)

i wish i were a seahorse
they're mostly monogamous, you know
they form pair bonds
that's kinda like marriage but sweeter
they even hold each others tails while courting
the only problem with being a seahorse
is that the male is the one who becomes pregnant
i'm not so sure that i want to be a seahorse anymore

john william

gabriella's got a wall
the likes of which
the world hasn't seen since
germany was the sum of two parts

jane's got a guy with
double consonants
in his name
i liked her better in our tent
with t's on polar opposites

christina and i shared
a gaza strip loft
it's not easy to be a palestinian
when she's off having lunch
with the fucking united states of america

if you're in the east
than i'm in the west
when you're in the tent
i'm on the outside of a stuck zipper
if you're in our loft
than his shit is on my bedside table

the use of vos instead of the far more common tú as the second-person familiar subjective pronoun

when i was little
a new girl came to our school
she rode the yellow school bus
all the way from argentina
our stupid teacher introduced her as jenny
it was love at first sight
or something like it
she spoke in lovely spanish tones
the stupid teacher asked for a volunteer
someone needed to help jenny read in english
it was the first and last time
i ever volunteered for anything at school
she must have been so overwhelmed
but you'd never have guessed it
from that smile forever burned into my memory
i'd never met an argentinian princess before that day
sometimes when i'm laying in the grass
i still think about her
getting off that big yellow school bus

and for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat

i'd like to hitch a ride
to delaware
for no other reason
than to just go
get away from all this normal
maybe the friendly driver
would play old springsteen cassettes
i'd like the sound at the beginning of each side
we'd smoke cigarettes
one after the other
and trade names
i'd tell her that i play the guitar
she'd tell me that she arranges flowers
maybe we'd be silent for parts of the trip
she'd tap the steering wheel
i'd gaze out the window at the cows
in a lonely fuck pasture
counting tombstones as they pass
perhaps our hands might touch
when we'd both go to flip the tape
at the same time
maybe we'd consider a kiss
she'd blush slightly and maybe i wouldn't
who could tell anymore?
there'd be an annoyingly dull pain in my arm
surely a heart attack
would that be a vulture in the distance?
soaring through heat lines
she'd clear her throat
more than a few times
i'd hate that
i should have worn sunglasses
i'd think to myself
she'd point to the glove box
i'd open it and she'd gesture
with a finger
to the pill bottles
it'd be a small town pharmacy in there
naturally i'd assume the choice was mine
maybe i'd settle on oxycontin
she'd take two of the five tapped into my palm
and wash them down with snapple
i'd gulp mine dry and take two more
when in rome, right?

national gee oh graphic

when a male lion
grows the balls to challenge
the protector of a rivalry pride
and wins
he kills the young of the deceased
to trigger the widow's heat

we just fuck the neighbour
and file for divorce

nature likes variety
i suppose

another six lines sink into obscurity

vanessa's in her underwear
taking a picture
so i can see too
thank god for technology
and underwear
and vanessa too

i'm on the do not call list

when you make your living
as a telemarketer
you hear the words "last call"
twice in a single day

catch her in the rye

pretty you, full of sin
bleed out & tourniquet
soft shards of porcelain
spill of of dead cells that you wear
when you go to bed
warm hearts & severed wrists
soft lips that guide your kiss
eyes hung in consequence
these are the last breaths that you get
while you second guess
elbows & clavicles
dressed in white chemicals
cast tongues in fairy tales that you've feared
since you were a kid
elbows & clavicles
miracles inside of us
cast tongues in chemistry sets that set your heart on fire

pretty you, full of holes
nearly invisible
oceans of eyeliner
spill out of dead eyes that you wear
when you look ahead
warm hearts & severed wrists
soft suicidal bliss
limbs slung in consequence
these are the last words you force out
from inside a kiss
elbows & clavicles
dressed in white chemicals
cast tongues in fairy tales that you've feared
since you were a kid
elbows & clavicles
miracles inside of us
cast tongues in chemistry sets that set your heart on fire

sound advice sounding slurred

make the most
of the tank
they store you in
when you're too drunk
to mingle
with the respectable

they took away my shoelaces