The Next Last One

One day we’re told to look at the sun

through a hole in a cereal box     All there is to be seen

is the rest of  the world disappearing     This

somehow shadows aliveness but almost

everyone who has ever lived is restlessly sleeping as dead

For who     About what     The end is near over

                    & over yet we insist on making dates to keep talking

          Always about the last eclipse the next blood

          flower buck worm strawberry ice wolf event

          Then there’s a last constellation we might ever see

          until there’s something else to look out for       

Gone are the frightening & gorgeous conspirators

that I’m sure I will not see again    

Traces of sweat & mystery streaks

some hells     communion & of course

a few awkward goodbyes     The mattress is

          gone forever like so many of the bodies I’ve worshipped

Here we are left with impressions

& a recollection of  my side of  the story     I cry

w/ one eye all the time but the right one staid defiant

                                                  What would you read to someone you

                                                  love if you knew that they were dying

If  it’s over again can we share more than black sites &

drownings     skin turned confetti     blue turned coal

& innards swept down sewers w/ brooms

          We give way beyond what we know     So the gun

          in my mouth made me a monster for a while

          Coming back shoeless calloused me

          everywhere but the bottoms of feet     Someone

dressed like a traitor convinced me

there are loyalties that deserve to be broken     Someone

w/ death to the klan on the door

let me know I already broke free

          Hear them both     They’re dead & it’s tricky

          since the decomposed & me are close but here

          I am w/ you     The friend who is you

          Impossible almost lover you     The us

          we chose as family you & others in the fullness of  time

None of us breed but someone will give

birth behind bulletproof glass where life &

the divide begin     This is a fabled event

packaged as betterment     It will spawn someone

who pays to spray us

                                                  like invasive bugs in the street     Cops

                                                  were children so we can look forward to

                                                  good regime/bad regime during future

                                                  questioning     Thanks for the theater

                            but we’ve seen the play     Civil discourse is broken

                            down in the destruction manual     They can have all

                the orchestras     Classical music will never drown out the sins

What would you write to someone you

love if   you thought you might be dying

          Maybe once I was someone who I’d love to see

          punched in the face     But I am here & not yet dead so

          a constellation of the imaginary is no imaginary

          constellation     There is no sky w/o a dream of sky     You

          who are family   fuck a grid & thanks to you I see

          brightness independent of state-­sponsored power

We talk about who threw that brick through

the window     & how it’s now part of a path in a garden

Broken glass is as old as glass     but the sound is

more than fresh wounds     There are fresh worlds still to be heard

                            Oh  & you my friend   I will fight anyone who says

                  you’re not pretty     That is just ridiculous talk     Distant

           impractical you     I believed we could be possible w/ translation

                            software & hearts-for-eyes emojis     No dice

                            but not before I entertained

                            dressing in a tux as your husband     Look

          I never thought when you said no more haircuts

          until wars were over that you’d never have

          short hair again     My beautiful barber

                       brushes my face     I feel funny I

          moan a weird prayer for peace     I guess it could happen

          lol     after all we deserve a new start     Soon we’ll be dead & brag

          about riches     We were here & looked right into the sun