how can I tell you?

how big lugs dragged the wide long tables out

pairs known by the languid gadabout,

who ‘knows what you mean’ forever

Hell, even devils say a secret's secret

I walk in my platforms, stable (you’re in the distance)

*I lean hard against the tables

lie down, figure 8 our halos

dream of little lambs hopping white lines – ornamental

small world,

how it all got replaced

I did love how we both took up space

no problem there, you ‘re my baby

and no child of mine's goin’ crazy

am I anything if not my word?

words, they hurt

how can I tell you?

am I a nothing if not my words?

words they hurt

worst-case worse:

I’ll burn out, the same as anyone

six feet from the dirt pile under the sun

unhurt by the pain my body wrought

with more words than I should’ve...