Unified Fabrication of Self-Tolerance

Dilated pupils, a two-four of beer, and a bottle of whiskey,

Television humming on a cheap aluminium stand,

Borderline tempted and starved

For the viscosity and detachment

            Of perpetual alcoholism.

 

When it comes to intimate relationships

I play the sensible cockroach;

Run the other way

To self-congratulate myself incoherent,

From avoiding the conventional blunt-force bloodshed of my brothers and sisters.

 

These days, in the delusion of invulnerability,

And with self-trolling determination and erratic expectations,

I look high and low for the undertow to safety,

Dive in head-first and wrap myself in fool’s paradise,

Only to be caught in the antiseptic sneeze

And toxic asphyxiation

of her entire can of

Black Flag.