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Manipulated, stimulated, mutilated
spindled, swindled, brindled, kindled
castigated, masticated, I'm on fire

The man says we'll travel seventeen
times faster now than ever before, his
caps read Making A Shit Hole Great Again

I wear a mask, I don't want to be careful
I want to be dangerous, who is stealing
all my grocery money, you have to rob

A bank to buy a hamburger, I eat Son Of
A Bitch Stew every damned night and wait
on an armed response, it's all a cacophony

You can't see love, but it still exists, don't
cry, the piano sounds like a toaster, jumping
in the sink while you're washing dishes.




Put My Burning Blood in Your Alligator Purse
My Neighbor's Chainsaw
Sick of a diet of living wood, my neighbor's chainsaw revolts. It gnaws off his limbs and leaves him rolling in the dust. It raves to his woodshed and fells it. With its rage increasing by the minute, it saws the corners of the house, then slices along the peak of the roof. The house falls open like a pomegranate. Next, the saw crawls down the driveway and heads toward my house. I stand in the road and wave my arms, but it lurches directly at me. I run down the road, turn and watch the thing cruise up my driveway. Before it can sever my house from itself, I toss a plastic tarp over it. The flimsy plastic snarls the sharp teeth and the engine stalls. Before it can restart itself I grab it and run to the marsh. Tossed into the mire, it gargles out of sight. Then a roar as it tries to restart, then a gasp and puff of blue fume. After a while I wade into the shallows and recover the dead machine. Already it has rusted to an antique shade of ruin. Still, being cautious, I remove the chain and empty the fuel tank into the dirt. I know this is a violation and crime against nature, but we all became criminals the day we invented machines.