Youth

Everything tastes like black licorice.The window sticks.The cold metal of my watchadjusts to warmthby just this contactwith my arm.The symmetryof clock tower and hospitaldisorients me looking downafter the elevator opensto another windownot just stuck but sealed shutfor our safety.In the waiting roomthe carpet pattern swirlswith violet and redwhile a woman taps a cigaretteinto a soda […]

The Golem

The cut looks like a comet’s tail,and stalks there on my forearmall dried out now after cleaning itand waiting.A robin with one eyescarfs red berries downfrom the tree outside the windowjust above our kitchen sink. I remember my old friend,when we were kids,stacking broken bricksinto the rough shapeof a human and calling it a golem.Even […]

Music Box

He takes her out to the fire.It crackles likea skeleton falling apart,and all the musichypnotizes othersinto frantic swayingbordering on dancebut not quite getting there. They claim their plastic cupsof beer and stolen chairsand watch a fight break outover something just as stupid.Her forehead is the colorof a clementine fromthe orange burst of heatthere in the […]

For A While Now

Pills spill into the bloodand take effectso slowly you forgetabout them.The metal clip on the ropefor the flagpole collidesrepeatedly into the metallike a church bellwhere you wouldn’twant to hear one.Radio voices mutilatethe silence with their falsehoods,and the droning loudcommercials in between them.They distract each otherfrom all of it with their bodiesarching blue sparksin between them,and […]

Jackets

This city craves anotherwave of fog rolling inover canal street.While all the grass cuttersand tree trimmers prayfor dryness and a slowlysetting sun.The high school helperat a thrift storesweeps up broken glassby a useless doorthat can’t even keepthe wind out anymore.She only works therefor a chance to snagold jackets that arrivefrom time to time.They’ve always made […]

Undergrowth

All kinds of litter in the undergrowthbeer cans and liquor bottleschief among themshining in their dull bluesilver glory.They send the thievesand lowlifes out to spearit all into some plastic bagsbut it just replenisheswith every nightthere is no one out to witnessthe inevitable. A seatless toiletpale as all the headlightsrests wrapped in emerald grassstill wet from […]

After Rain

A Wooden fence kicked inby a storm cannot keepthe world out. Plastic buckets filled with rainwaterand leaves sit in the silent shadeand hope to overflow one day. Car alarms wake up old menwho look with blurry vision outtheir windows at the crowded streetand cannot track just whereit all is coming from. A girl in black […]