Latency

I've been murdered
and every step is fire,
treading on
brand new asphalt
in the Grand Canyon.

All I want now is
a solid workout -
push-ups until my arms
no longer function,
until the only movement

I can manage is
a feeble thumbs up,
enough to tell
the forlorn paramedic
I forgive his lateness.
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Playing on my iTunes at this very moment:
Xavier Rudd, Messages

On the edge of a knife

Oxygen was only life
until some idiot
introduced it to jet fuel.
Now it is combustion,
a great trigger
waiting to be pulled
as it eases, quietly,
in and out of your lungs,
the breath of millions
clutched by a breeze.
And all it will take
is for one junkie
to scratch that itch,
turn that key,
press that button,
light that biggest match,
and what was life
will all be ruined -
will all be set to burn.
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Playing on my iTunes at this very moment:
Jamie N Commons, Wish You Were Here

You won't even know I'm gone

painting by Adam Lupton

The chair next to you will still be full,
another body and a different mind,

a wire that stretched out to trip you,
trick you and keep you captivated

even though the future is impossible.
The waves that pulse through your brain

tell you things you don't want to hear -
things you can't bear to know are true -

the rules to a game you could never win
once the deck has been stacked so high.

And every day apart will feel empty,
and every day together will be worse,

a choice between pulling the arrow out
and letting it stay, blood and skin festering,

the phone ringing nightly - distant humming
of molecules as the temperature drops,

and the nightly summer rains will start snowing,
and the cold could snap July clean in half.
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Playing on my iTunes at this very moment:
Blu, Vanity

On flights of arrows, sharper than we'd been led to believe

painting by Brad Phillips

Romance is not a
car crash, but a natural
disaster - you seep
into my brain and
poison all the ground,

and when poured into
the form of a cigarette,
you would be sweeter
than nicotine, but
just as cancerous.
_________________________________________________

From the most recent decomP, an excellent poem from Will Arbery.

And here, my friend Zach absolutely kills it.
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Playing on my iTunes at this very moment:
Skyzoo, The Definitive Prayer