These clothes only belong to me
because consumerism told someone else to
throw them away,
strung up on my limbs of wilted grass,
browned by the memory
that has held us here,
like this.
The memory that has held us here,
dangling from the rosaries
on one another’s necks,
framed by glass beads
of forest green
and self-induced irony"
We are the martyrs for the beauty that never was,
We stay in place and watch with
stitched eyes
embellished with golden thread
as the selfishly, selectively starved birds pick us apart
straw
by
straw"
we’re living in cross-hatched fields
of corn embellished with gold,
that are only noticed
when crop circles appear ‘out of nowhere,’
so everyone can continue living
with their fear of the unknown,
so everyone can continue believing that
‘nothing gold can stay.’
The RAPTURE! 2012! THE APOCALYPSE! WORLD WAR 3!
All these things weak people predicted
because they wanted an escape plan,
What about the unexplained earthquakes?
What about the raising death toll and the Chinese baby girls in garbage cans?
What about the population that is growing quicker
than the steroid-infused fruits and vegetables
in these socialist fields we find ourselves in?
What about the fact that we too, are just crops up for sale,
up for consumption and purchase"
We go to the highest bidder.
What happens when the crows return?
You only belong to me
because someone else threw you away;
your ‘bang’ was too low for your ‘buck,’
and I tufted the hay around your neck,
straightened your straw hat
that was sliding off in a dangerously cliche fashion,
I restitched your smile sewn
with black thread,
to reassure us both that
‘nothing gold can stay.’
Our crosshatch faces of cotton and dried grass,
facing one another across unloved fields
of over-nourished plants,
We had a silent agreement
that not even we knew we wanted,
We had a silent agreement
that we hid in whispers
in the centers
of raindrops
strung along the webs of our fingers
like glass beads,
but more fragile,
and less beautiful"
“I’ll keep the crows away,
so you never have to think of death again.”
We are not as weak as them,
we do not need an anticipated route of exit"
We are planted right here,
strung along
like glass beads,
but more fragile,
and less beautiful"
If you are not safe,
I am not safe:
“I’ll keep the crows away,
I’ll keep the crows away.”