Runaway

You wanted to

have vision

but the gods

changed.

You wanted to feel

the fraction of the

degree of

temperature

enter the

water, feel the

minute leave the

minutes

behind.

Why not be

happy. What are

they doing

to the minutes.

Each one takes

that minute of you

away. Takes away

hope. We stand

around, we have the

sensation we

dreamed the whole

thing up, we

didn’t, & all

around us how alive

rot is, & damp that

never ceases kissing

everything in-

discriminately—yr

hands, yr skin fixed to

fit everywhere tight,

yr lids holding yr

gaze, the rubble, the

anti-microbial skins,

the layers of cello-

phane, the rare &

treasured paper

sack, everything

delivered up to us

as if spectacular, as if

an emergency of the

spectacular,

& new data-sets showing

more new hours days debt melt

scars faster rising than

ever anticipated,

also those fleeing

told no no, not you, you

are not allowed, where

are yr papers—oh

those—I know we

gave them to u but

here u see we

change our mind—look,

here is a changed

mind, a mind whose house

burned, here is

melted chromium & ash

where yr life was—stay

calm, listen to

authorities, re-

build, imitate, believe,

wait, b/c it will come again,

over the ridge, the

licking flare, as if

pure hunger, or

curling all over u now

the fire of the

flashlight, don’t move,

I beg u, never

move, figure out

what the they is,

what the they wants—

pretend it’s laughter, it’s a

refrain—pay up—as for the

recent past

it’s got too much history

a mind can

set the match to—but see, the fire

prefers not to die, no,

& we oblige, we feed it, we

keep it

unpayable.