Because I haven't had one in a while
Breathe to hurt
Wake to hurt
Slide down the scales
And nestle in the body shaking bass of hurt
Vibrate with hurt
Bleed and writhe with all that hurt
Hurt will
Ripple
From stomach to head
Arms to legs
Burns and scrapes
Slashes and bruises
Infect that soul with hurt
Now you know
Now you know why
Now you know why not
So
Where to next?
I cry
I cry out
I cry out your name
Well
When shall you call mine?
We fight
We fight blindly
We fight blindly against nothing
And
How will we patch the wounds?
Anachronistic wet dreams
Shadow me in eternal internal revolt
Reach around and grab my soul
Shove it onto a scale with a feather
Balance the world with an idea
You you you
You raped me
With taking
There is always giving
This shitty poem
Will never communicate this
Do flowers bleed angst?
Does the moon cry during the day?
Is every heart broken
And every love sour?
I could write
Ten million verses
Of love and hate
I could describe
The world
In the terms
Of which side of the bed I rolled out of
The grass is much greener
Across an ocean
With no way to climb up a ladder
And see over the fence.
The meaning of distance is too understated;
The process of other is so casually ignored
In the most feverish of pipe dreams.
Sometimes there is a reason you cannot see the field you covet
Sounds, smells, and sights of a distant farmland
Can be turned from dung to roses
By those not willing to ask a realtor
Location location location
Means nothing if where you are is not considered
There is a mess on my arm
Ameteur tattoos and primitive palm pilot notes
It's hard to tell whether they fade in or grow out
Appointments missed and met
That cool band you told me to check out
One stands out
One that anchors vision to the space between
Sharpie "9 o'clock Saturday"
Bic pen "Buy Kundera book"
"I taste like candy"
She left me some words
While the teacher chatters about irregular verbs
It will fade in
Grow in
You get your Mickey Mouse tattoo
I'll have a new meaningful mark every day
We are the noble savages of Europe
I'll eurotrash your wardrobe
And you'll smooth jazz down my greased fauxhawk
I'll see your secret police crackdown and raise you a student protest
Just give me a half a chance and I'll rise my flag right up over your circle of stars
Your cult of the past and our world of celebrity worship
Lets pop into the American embassy and grab a royal with cheese
Are we the Rolling Stones or The Plastic People of the Universe?
Privatize that castle and collectivize my digital music
Glass and steel versus brick, mortar, stained glass, gold, and marble
National heritage and beutification versus fanny packs and 35 milimeter belly buttons
How best to lead with arrogance fighting ignorance?
I am we are tird of how you tell it and why you tell it
It is not too complicated, you've just invented too many words
All of it is just a hustle
From the street behind that pub to the road to parliment
Tourist menus and kickbacks
Overhcharging taxis and mafia owned strip clubs
To be like you
To be like me and we
Not today or yesterday or the day you are able to
Officially shun those
immigrants or jews or muslims or christians or gays or drug users or AIDS or Africa or Kim Jong Il or the Amazon
Or another bit of ink on paper condemning it all
We are all proud and we are all ashamed
We all tell lies and perpetuate lies
The whole world is to blame
I'll help you start
Repeat after me
I, your name,
Have failed in my duty
As a citizen of the world
I have turned my back on startvation, lawlessness, cruelty,
Poverty, disease, pollution, global warming, prejudice,
Racism, torture, dictators and war
To buy a luxury car
To talk on a new cell phone
To take a nap
To watch a romantic comedy
To read a gossip magazine
To download internet porn
To discuss what was on TV last night
We have not failed
But we are failing
Can you describe your Virginia Woolf?
Maybe you can find her in a lineup
We'll catch her accomplice
The Dalloways can't hide for long
The best critics in the world are on your case
Do any of these mugshots look familiar?
We've had a lot of complaints about her and her gang
But I guess things finally turned ugly
This criminality will not be tolerated
Justice will be served
Is there anything else you can remember?
Ah yes, we often hear that
Well if you can find yourself recalling too much
There are some network executives
Who tell me they would be more than happy to help
Wait a second, do I know you?
You look very familiar all of a sudden...
Hey! You're James Joyce!
We need you for questioning too
No, nothing serious, we just want to talk for a while
Do you know what your work has done?
This Poem Sponsored By Budweiser
Land of the Free/dom Fries/
Home of the /Atlanta/ Braves/'s Spring Nextel Stadium/
These colors don't run /with Tide Colorguard Laundry Detergent/
Support our troops /with Wal Mart brand magnetic yellow ribbons/
Ask not
What your country /club/ can do for you
But what you can do for your country/'s conglomerates/
Whosoever owns this land
Owns its soul
From Budapest through Bratislava to Praha
And everyone is having a private dance party
White cords snake over and around sleeping bodies
Just try to guess what each carries from jukebox to eardrum
The train coddles and rocks
While it screams and squeals
Around each long corner the engine can be seen
Carving a path from the solid midnight shadows
A single bell is all that can be heard from the warnings
At empty crossings
Open the last door on the last car
And see the ties and tracks get washed into the darkness
Each gust of blasting snow brings the promise of flight
with a simple step out an open door
The true joy is not the possible flight
But the possibility of flight
Warm benches warm bodies
Dime lights and large windows
They all tell me of soaring over