Monday, May 2, 2016

can i get off at the next station?


is the poem enough

can all be said within

do i need to write a novel

tell my story beginning to end

 

give it the title

a lost soul posing as an artist

 

chapter one, page one

 

“boredom abounds

a myriad of sounds

cascade across my consciousness

 

absence of bliss

i run to your kiss

and call upon a casual causality

 

fragmentary fragrances

unfolding in my mind

i took a pause

to find the cause

but all that i could find

were afterbirth

and songs of mirth

and dreams left undefined”

 

well, maybe not

it would be just another

esoteric etch-a-sketch

that no one would understand

but me

 

the rejection driving me further

down the rabbit hole

 

oh i try to function

but truth is

i’m just hiding in plain sight

ready to ignite

and taste the ash of my decomposition

 

filling out forms for the requisition

then standing by the mailbox

for all eternity

waiting for the delivery which never comes

 

nobody bothering to tell me

that i have already died

staring at me with

dead soulless eyes

my super power is unmasking

the sorrow they try to hide

 

it’s raining

i walked in it

now i’m watching it

and goddamn if it isn’t

saturating my depression

with an extra ladle full

of sour sauce

 

god has my depression taken hold

i don’t know where to come in

out of the cold

 

i’ve done therapy, prozac nation

oh and this stupid fucking writing shit

 

i am a cigarette unlit

in-between the fingers of a non-smoker

folding with four aces

in the last hand of poker

 

and it doesn’t fucking help

that i’ve ridden to the roadside of nihilism

a two lane highway

so dark headlights are useless

and everyone just gets out and walks

very, very slow

and what spark or flicker

may light my way

will have no ignition point

after i die

 

how i envy the eyes

that lifts to the skies

singing

oh Lord, how great Thou art

 

my community is of a bunch of smokers

i’m always generous with mine

and if i’m out

someone is always happy to give

 

oh the lives we live

after we extinguish

and go our separate ways

 

i’ve tried to quit

but it’s like a cult

making it impossible to leave

 

but i don’t hang out too long

what would i say

except that i suck

 

share these thoughts on parade

which i can’t get high enough to barricade

and stop the endless procession

of their march

 

first world problems

trapped like sardines

and salty sausages

unable to capture

the canary or the crane

 

reading about the train

and all that christiaan pasquale experienced

 

it doesn’t matter if it makes sense

when you wallow from depression

you’re a cloud covered eeyore

by a sunny forest stream

unable to feel anything but the rain

 

i guess a poem is enough

to discuss and convey

a novel or play

may be more entertaining

but as i said

i’m not finding any of this much fun

 

i don’t want to feel this way

channel it into a five act play

that would take me months to write

like living in the constructs of a religion

that doesn’t allow for a divorce from depression

 

a momentary confession

because that’s all poetry is

a moment

 

and those of us outside the atonement

make the most of moments like these

like pasquale tasting the breeze

from a train passing five feet from his face

 

i’ve bowed my head before the statue

saying, “full of grace”

trying to identify with the religions

that prays to a goddess

 

but my depression is a concession stand

that sells everything for free

till i am full of things that are worthless

 

and i begin to understand

(if not truly contemplate)

suicide

it would just make everything stop

 

there are no storms raging around

all is inside

like an alien that has burst out of my chest

turned and devoured

 

a shape shifter that lets you see

stars through the trees

while i dwell on why

the tree tops block out patches of the sky

 

the cat comes from outside

rain escape

races muddy paws across the table

paw prints on my poems

 

i wonder how many beers

bukowski spilt at his typewriter

staid sentences in silhouette

 

and i am starting to feel better

dirtied these pages with my poems

like the last mound of dirt

laid on a grave

 

writing may not save

but it strengthens me enough to smile

as i take the stage

and pretend i am something i’m not

 

***

 

 

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