Displacement
my tense tarnished/impenetrable as a passport/my sense a hiccup/my name a historical exercise/in impostering/my posture/a veiled plea/please take your foot off the break/and choose/a destination/without a nation/is a haunting/a country/without a calling/is a chasm/whatever/i told you/i have nowhere to go/can only go so high/without/tonguing a tribute/literalizing a loss/is a ghost/is a grandiose/proclamation/a statuesque statement/in surrender/another naked hour/an exchange/of gaps/fingers grasping/the wheel/each sinew/an engagement/excuse me/i’d like to be taken/and token this moment/let it lint in the pocket/of my bluest jeans/want my ear/chasing your sound/to another shore/another sky/an anachronism/rattling for what/i’ve yet to lose/i know it’s premature/to try/and move all the furniture/cry curbside/over the cubed fruit/careering into/another field/the GPS a mess/turn/turn/turn/gets us where/the light administering aid/all angling rays/dogwoods and dandelions/or jasmine blossoms pearling a string/hawked rags and hands squeegeeing/soapy water off the windshield/eyes squinting into/middle of nowhere/America/or clogged heart/of Manila/I can’t/get the background right/the road empty/or almost there just a few more hours/into the next city/please/take your foot off the break/alone/or imploring/how I preened/my beauty/finally functional/-ly inaccurate/the sky/ill at ease/all orange and undone/and me/somewhere in the frame/born to please
Self-Assessment
Please choose the image that best mirages
your intentions contemptuous clockwork
unwound from 1 to 5
what mercurial shimmer of danger tempts you to
demand its disfigurement
comfort calls like a checkbox
bloodshot beneath fluorescence
beholden to rewiring
what you’ve wrecked yourself
is easier to recover reduced
feelings of helplessness
imperfection recurring
giving birth to nothing
yes or no this scenario of
not looking anymore for fear
of animating your mouth twisting out
other names bombastic silences
accidentally or on purpose
