Author's Note: I recently reread some of the poetry I submitted to the Times, and I wanted to either spontaneously combust or drown in self-pity. So here's a poem that will make me do both.
take it back now--
don't want it anymore
gulp by gulp, bit by bit
you're a lost dreamer in a sea of air.
inch by inch skin's covered
twitching nerves caught fire and
burned more than you or i ever did.
water does nothing to cleanse.
it's going on for what seems like forever,
this world of nothing and sky and
rotation. your eyes clenched shut you see
we're aimless: maybe getting somewhere with those
steps of ours.
we're that dying part that no one wants--
we're the water that's gone rancid that
you and i and everyone else swallow
for what seems like forever.
let's shoo away those annoyers,
those buggers, those schemers,
those liars, those believers--
let's be fruits on a tree instead
because fruits on a tree don't do anything but
sit.
