84. The Thing of Silence

Have you ever contemplated what

silence might look like if

heard through the ears of

those who knew nothing

but sound?

Could lack be such an alien

concept for someone

that it couldn’t be fathomed

in opposite to

the concept of too much?

83. Continued Breathing

I’m tired of the lie of breath and how

it doesn’t do anything to

fix anyone’s lives, how its novelty’s

wearing thin and I

would in fact like to stop it

were it not for the fact that

all I know how to do is

breathe

and it’d be a shame

to quit the only thing I’m good at.

82. Withering Things

I guess my thoughts fell

and died before reaching the shores

of your field of vision

and I guess my voice withered before

it got within earshot, close

enough for you to hear them

and I guess everything just sort of

ended and faded when I

tried to place it before you because you

had no need for any of it.

81. Plans

Making plans, it’s like trains arriving

that don’t stop for their

passengers, whose passengers have to

chase down the trains and use

whatever force they

can to open the doors

and slow it down and make it

so that there is even

the remotest chance of them getting on

and not getting run over.

80. here

tea’s not too

hot, maybe a little

lukewarm for

its waiting but you know

there’s always something good

about things when it’s

their time,

their real proper time,

even if it means a tepid spring into meaning.

79. The Lady Sleep

Sleep’s always been a nice one,

never said anything wrong to

me or treated me badly.

She never gave me nightmares when

I wanted sweet dreams

(though she’d often give me

dark, imageless slumber instead)

and she never kicked me with

that shock of falling into

unconsciousness but being

jerked awake by a sense of falling into

nothing

but she just doesn’t talk to me

and though I try to speak to her, she

never replies and

I wonder how she feels about me, really.

78. Hidden

I was sent here to look

around and tell you what the

damage was like,

but as I’m here and staring

at what I was told was

wreckage but looks quite different,

I’m not sure if I

can do my job.

You see, I don’t see any damage

done, so I can’t

evaluate what’s happened to you,

and I think you’re perfectly fine.

77. Not a reunion

hey if you ever see her

again, give her my regards perhaps,

tell her I don’t hate her and

I never hated her in fact,

let her know I’m sorry

if anything was ever wrong

but don’t let her think

I loved her because

I really didn’t

which is why you’ll have to

say it, not me.

76. a battle with

yell words such as

“it can’t be so”

or

“I was expecting something else”

or even

“what now”

:

rest assured the world will

hear your words

but it will not return them

back to you because

words are

only forms of a thing

and they

cannot touch things themselves and

            the bitter injustices

            that form futile syllables in the

            mouths of many

            hate your corporeal lives

            and they laugh when your best

            attempts to fight use weapons that

            can’t even leave the smallest bruise.

75. Verbs and Such

Now [look] who gave you

permission to proceed[s]

who gave you the right

to say anything about

anything at all

and who exactly

mentioned your name when

list[en]ing [to] people who might

have had something

to say in the first place

whose words are in your mouth

and who’s in your words

74. No Proof of Words

Some people idly assume

that words exist

but we know that’s not true, because

if they did

they’d be twisting around

our fingers all the time

and tickling us with promises

and making us feel

as though we had never done

one wrong thing

in our lives.

The world we live in

is not a world that houses

such things,

things that could erase and

blanket past events

and present experience.

73. Having a Cause

There are strokes of

worthwhile work

on this planet, and I am

here to look for them

and shake them ‘til

I see their roots

and plant them into people’s

lives once again.

72. Choices

My choices are good,

But they could have been better.

I guess I’m human.

71. like question marks (?)

why are there points on a

dotted line

why do they all seem to

aim towards you

is there a

            conspiracy

against anyone wanting

normality

in

this

world

.

70. Those on the Earth

There’s a man looking

slightly like the expectations

of an angel, and he looks

up and says, “Looks

like rain in the world today”

and a more mortal equivalent

who could have been his

twin agrees vehemently

but smiles as he does so.

“The righteous have no concept,”

he thinks.

69. sleep

I have these conversations with myself:

            I’m going to go to sleep,

            I’m going to go to sleep

            right now

            I’m going to go to sleep

but then I say to myself

            no i’m going to stay up til 1 am

68. A Home for Lost Things

my regret [in this case] is

the regret of having

pretended there was no such thing as you

and there was

[such a thing as]

emptiness -me-

empty empty person,

me the thing without hope

until I came across

a

thing called you and you were

what filled me

you were what I imagined was

a tiny patch of light

but lights flicker on and off and

they are lights in houses

and your house is empty now and

I’m too/so ashamed

[toadmit] that

I have no fixed address

67. Late and Tired

Semi-emotional tired not drunk

but nearly near it

like they should go to bed

like they should sleep

like he needs a sort of rest that makes

really restful sounds

66. The Land of Whispers

In the land of whispers, there are no such

things as facts; they are all opinions made

truth. In the land of whispers, the quiet

is the only way to test anything, so these

philosophically questionable axioms are

always accepted. In the land of whispers,

there are twelve men who follow the

wrong philosopher.

65. the currents and the reveler

a carousel for kings/maybe

but I’m not interested in

the what-may-be or the

why-it’s-nots

there’s a system of leader-ship(s) in

the works already

and as it may be it takes

into total account(s) the

current and the revelers

it makes me a king to say it

the only trouble is we don’t

yet know if the

thing is plural or if the royal We

will give up on that notion

64. Carry On

There is a figure standing, leaning

on the signpost, arms folded,

with a wide-brimmed hat

that covers most of his

downward-tilted face.

There could be a smile

on the wayward’s features, and

one can almost see

such a suggestion if one looks hard enough.

            It’s the kind of smile that says,

            addressing the whole world,

            “Come on, I know who you are,

            so let’s start.”

            And it’s not a pretense –

            the traveler really does know

            all the things he addresses

            (every last one)

And unexpected as anything,

he tilts his face up and

yes, it is a smile there

it’s a smile that he carries along

as he steps onto the

road, and it’s a smile that

knows everything even though its

bearer doesn’t know what way he’s going.

63. Time Passing

Days are like clocks whose

second hands tick

invisibly and whose minute and

hour hands move loudly

and boldly and incredibly.

62. too, too weary

 how tired is he?

he does not answer

because he doesn’t know the

answer to this question

because “tired”

has become a

state so normal

he cannot even consider it a “state”

61. Terminal Illness

It’s strange and unsettling

and sobering to

hear other people talking

about your past-tense death while

you’re still alive,

especially when the weirdness

is multiplied by everyone you know.

60. Queen of Days

Have you ever heard of the
“Queen of Days”?

They say she rules all of us and

knows numbers well

enough to number seven billion people

and she feeds on life

and she can’t ever be persuaded.

59. How Changes Aren't Meant to Go

Let things fall if they fall and

let them rise if they rise

but never be the one to push things

to edges they

were not meant to reach, and

never be the one who has it said

of them,

“They were the agent of change”.

            No one knows what the phrase

            really means anyway.

58. not into evil

no no not good enough

not an attempt

not [a] kind of something that would

attempt

(temptation[s])

leading ways into evil

trying to reverse it

trying to resist

never succeeding not really

            someone is something

            is enough of a thing

            to put a halt on anyandall.

57. Independence Day

I’m hearing something to

the effect of gunshots and steel

on a canvas of

humanity shouting-demanding-screaming.

I can hear words like
“liberty” and “freedom”

and no one even has to say

“revolution”

and I’m feeling it along

with them only in a way

one could call

“retroactive”

because you know that’s what they fought for

and we’re the thing they’d

keep fighting for if they weren’t

just voices in a history book.

56. for no one

whispering on someone else’s shores

will not get you

very far; you’ll only

end up in a distance that

maybe you built

maybe you destroyed

                        maybe you never even touched

but no loudness and things of solidity

are the things

            you’d have needed

to look at an ocean of a million waves and never touch any

55. It can't be Done

there’s not a thing I could

[do that] would make you feel

like

                        (could?)

you do that?

that’s an attempt I made at

making it

better feeling even well

            like

              well

            like you’d never liked anything before

            could you really?

            could you really

try to do the

reverse onto me

onto myself

[are there even things like that possible?]

54. and this is your life

A large number of useless events shape

the course my everything takes

everything takes time away

uselessly

pointlessly

in vast amounts

            I just wish they’d shaped me differently.