you stepped in dog
poop on your birthday
but still had a good birthday
we walked through windchimes
off golden sidewalks
& drank a vat of black coffee
free from a corporation
so desperate for your loyalty
all our other friends
reached into their pockets
to blow out their rewards, too
(originally published in The Daily Drunk, Winter 2021)
television
the mechanism
wherein brains
dwindle
upon a string
tethered
to satellite
voices
in my ears
and yours
a stranger
intimately
confined
to believe
one of us
is real
(originally published in DASH Literary Journal, Spring 2020)
and I am on fire too ready
to burn Panera down
no one really wants this hospital
food its chemicals inside
that make it breathe the bread
is moving if you watch
close enough its heartbeat
in your mouth we are all on
fire this former dead living
animal a baguette string inside
my intestines there are wings
in my salad flapping dead cells
floating and all I can do is be
the sun and burn the whole world
then flush my throat with water
(originally published in Madness Muse Press, Fall 2020)
It rains
today
in Los Angeles.
Crows hunt for
worms in the
outskirts’ dark
pores, sifting
ribs from
the wet.
(originally published in Goat’s Milk Magazine, Spring 2020)