Oh, you, and your blistered cheek

The moon is delicate in its marooning around Earth Park

Bashful and better learned than I

Certain and ply 

After a changing of the guards 

Hand-offs and briefs and such

I take a cigarette without lunch

My stomach sucks and plucks like an instrtument of service 

And the moon takes a space as large as the sun

Curating a room to be damaged and stuffed

With inordinate courses of gluttonous fluff

And in moments like these, I find the actual moment itself

A gentle breeze, because it's the only word so fitting

Bathes the shell in which I bleed, with simplicity and scents of quiet age

Nothing is ever simple

But my chest moves expertly 

Nose wrinkles shrewdly

And my eyes appear soft, curious again, like they used to be 

Gladdest nights, I’m only here for the promises

Spell cast on a lonesome buoy bouncing youthfully in the striped horizon

To a slow dance on a perfect slant, floating the lake speckled with dock-lamps 

I breathe because, every so often, it feels good 

The stars look honest 

Better than they should  

I think they’ve forgotten their place 

I think they’ve forgotten that we’re still in the fight

Better them than us 

Their pretty lights trickle down from the overtown

With their lawns of clouds and waste clarifying on the way down

And I admire them 

Because it’ll end like breakfast 

Like a letter suggesting you vacate the premises

And then they’ll turn into colors brought up from the receptor working itself to death

I think that it’s pertinent these times catch up to us as we’re tripping over our awful wit

I reposition before one last glance 

One last stitch in my hip 

Utter bliss, I fear

With cracked lips spilling salt, I wet them and forget why I came 

I’ll be here again

Before I’m out

“Lemon drop, pretty please, with sugar on top.”

Yes, a swift labotomy with a fatigued hand is a must

I’d love a thump on the temple for a detail in the plot

But only if you insist

Once a month

I do

And once a month passed like summer

Another time, it was a long minute 

And then a year

And then it didn't 

The time just carried itself without a shadow 

And I stayed to fill out a little

As if that was the problem 

I help people find god 

And I help them cure themselves of one 

I listen, but I do not talk

Ghosts in the building, some real, and some not

They spit politics with veneers that look like vampire teeth 

Boasting of children they’ll never meet 

And they always ask about me 

How are the seasons?

Did you leave yet?

They dont ask if I'm in school anymore

But they ask where I went

And I tell them everywhere, except all those places I haven't been

Speaking Portuguese with the locals by accident

When I was thinking in English 

Drying my feet off in the communal shower head while listening to Danzig

Dining under the universe's expanse, visible from the northernmost harbor 

While the white waves reflect each other, tongue in cheek

Like they communicate behind us while we’re looking

I drink water for free from my hands 

As I stare into the rocks that shimmer with sweat like an awesome abyss

I’ve seen a lot of people who look just like you

And in their mornings, they dress better

And when they rise, the view is much prettier 

And we’d have conversations like these, but with a mind to chew and chew and release

And they ask

They ask me

You just graduated, then, yes?

Sure

If that's what you’d like of me, yes

Can I get you another before I leave?

My hands are smooth and pale

And time is gracious with me, slow and full

And I’ve left before 

Many times and many more

And, Sir, I’d like to leave again, while the seat is still warm