i get those messages all the time
i get those messages all the time
i think high-rise i think windows i think here’s
an idea i’d play with in a box for a while
then we’d let go real concrete
real chill. i put on my hat & walking shoes.
i take me to the impolitic, the inalienable. do steps
do inventory do car insurance? by Thursday
we’ll feel good about it have you
slapped me he says, cussed me out? no, sobbing
cascades over breakfast cereal
dinners the Cardenas Market & Carnicería
Guadalajara the high points The Price is Right
the low, sing it why
is his telephone permanently off? why
is he in the playground? an Ambien coma
is looking for somebody
else’s Toyota & big deal to promise an Olive Garden
then renege. search parking lots for closet
space & non- alcoholic beers, a bouquet
is not a descriptive flight or a wild
analogy we weren’t really in a car to have
a conversation, you weren’t really looking
at the mirror instead of me & i didn’t forget
that this was my extra life. i radiated
a destructive center brimming to feel
(as though i mattered & that you would pull over
safely to shore). a view of the strip mall
falling on me, it was just a way to construct a story
a tragedy a symphony a personality
in the form of an anonymous
driveway, repeat after me i’m worse it
“i get those messages all the time” was previously published in HVTN 4.2 2018 (UK)