Notes on Notes off

Dear shackles,

Lash down the piteous rex. Oh call of hands to finger cleats that low down kind of harm. I will curl now before the flame and wither off in silence, I rest for only hate and love and guns and things that take. Unlearn! Unlearn the lessons of the riverbed, the points of cross bearers gloom. Slave ships and bottles full of marbles in the quake of me. Is this where I get off? What got me to the brink? I cant recall.

October was just that, now its nearly gone, summer far to pass, and the wind, it makes us strong.

No ring, I’m sorry, we said so many things, this scar, the seem, coagulation between the slates of skin. Busted roses bloom to Braille, its new kindness that retreat. It’s the deck above me, it beats a tell tale song, a heckling whistle. It tells me I am wrong. It tells me I will fail and I believe it, it kills me but I know it, I have seen it.

I will die young and you are the first to know, falling shorter than the bushes in summer. The light fails to reach the end you see. Brown where green originates, crackle in the ember snakes snapping through the snow. Bravest child in books you read would not kick through the neighbor’s briar patch or steal their tomatoes. Apologize to nothing cloaked in willow branches.

Churning out the guts now, the butcher stops to gain his footing, and he pulls, I feel lighter, intestines bust the thread that holds, no new yarn, the blood just pours and they belong to him now. Ribs next, they pop like the teeth of a dog, the dog never gave second thought, to biting a running chainsaw. He cracks them wide and makes a wish; he smiles and puts a chisel through my chest. Mallet now he breaks the spine. He dismantles the machine. Melon baler out and eyes next to run, to the jars and lids, tight to turn, not caring what is broken, he will simply have to begin again.