tick of my heart

My jaw
Unhinged
The top of my head
Flips off
Wings
Of gap-toothed bats
And stained moths
Caress stale air
Escaping from the dark
Bowl of my upturned skull
Tiny scurried legs
Spiders and roaches
Defy gravity
As they up and over
Leaving a trail
Of sooty footprints
Over illusioned purity
Of dead marbled flesh
Sin of words curse structure
Peeling away all the jointed
Connections
The last of my skin
Thuds to the floor
Laying in a crumpled circle
Around the sticks
That hold me up-
Right, skin
Like a plastic grocery bag
Emptied of its treasures
Leaving only the sullied
Record of commuted transaction
What's left
Segmented tick parts
Expand and contract
In tight controls
Sticky legs curl
Against a browned translucent body
My quivered heart
Beating still
Inside
Where hearts should be
A cyclical devouring
Of food and life and love
This
Left of me

goodbyes

My mind empties
When loud music
Scrapes the surface
Of the graying veins
In my head

I never did goodbyes very well

The end of my work day
Goodbye, see you tomorrow
What's the point
I'll just see them again
Tomorrow

Slipping away from parties
Disappearing from
Nondescript banal conversations
Goodbye, thanks for having me
Slinked on the wall like a flower

The uncoupling rattle
Of important relationships
Fittering away the last of words
Burning inside meanings
Of everything that came before

The death of flesh
And carried in a box
Never saying goodbye
Because it was all so sudden
Like time scatter to dust

The noise of their heartbeats
And love and gratitude
Always buries the shit
Deep in my own red muscles
What's left of them

Let me rot
Like old stored fruit
Leave me alone
Away from all tendered connections
So I never have to say goodbye

Moon Blooming

The moon
Blooming
Giant oak
Bare branches
Flowering
Its nightly sway
Balanced
Between his wooded
Fingers against
Indigo her
White petaled
Dandelion blow
Into stars
The moon
Bloomed
Pulling oceans
Taut
To gaze at
Herself
In monthly passing

slip of the tongue

Rushing to her head
Side to side
Blood
From iced veins
He cut
Inside her
A slip of the tongue
Razored edges
Separating flesh truths
Her open wound
Cried
Frozen blue rivulets
Stream and stop
And stop
On molded skin
She made herself
Her very cold
The only stoppage
To this
Undying sameness