f*****g grad school

what the hell was i thinking?

in a sultry old castle

the last king of America

fades closer to the dark door

from a set of pursed lips

comes two syllables

forever to haunt those

who seek to decipher their meaning.

a snow sled

burning in the inferno

of the dungeon.

millions of jigsaw pieces,

yet no boxtop

to decipher what image it is

we are to construct.

to view what we have lost

in the frozen world of snow

drifting lifelessly

against a lonely old cabin.

who are we to understand one another?

what a man constructs

as a monument to himself

should crumble before he is dead.

another flag to wrap

around another ebony coffin.

for God's sake, let it be done!

give me the head of a snake

so that i may suck the venom

straight from his fangs.

every bottle i've ever drank

has been full of lies.

the books are nothing

but misleading lines upon cheap paper,

but we cling to them

because we know nothing

else.

i wish to be a single electron

floating freely in my sphere

alone and unbonded

unstable and aloof

to end the world in flames.

it's been years

since we've driven down the old road

or that day on the ferry,

you were dressed in white,

and for an instant

the mighty world belonged

to this minor, unloved character.

now i am destined to live

in a shabby hospital

unwilling to treat the disease.

please, just wrap up a few leafs of tobacco

and send them my way will you?

the light's gone out in the window,

and there's only black smoke

coming from the chimney.