these fragments I have shored against my ruins

I already know the storm, and I am as troubled as the sea.

Ask any woman & she’ll tell you why Eve bit / into that apple. Why she chose the universe instead / of you.

1. dreamers    a) are to be classified as weapons.    b) are their father’s sons, their mother’s daughters,    their cause of deaths.    c) are to be kept next to the raincoats in the closet.    d) love truly, if time allows. 2. do you have something you want to share? if not with the class    then with your soul. it’s in enough peril    as it is. 3. compare and contrast the making of pyres and graves. 4. true believers need God the way you need the truth:    at night/at funerals/seconds before a red light turns. 5. which of the following is not dead?    a) God.    b) the far fields where a body sharing your bones is buried.    c) the forest in your head.    d) dreams without a dreamer. 6. to tame nightmares: practice forgiveness.    examples include bathing in baptismal fonts    and avoiding playing the following games:    blame,    closing eyes on highways,    hearts,    picking at still-bleeding scabs. 7. what do you want? list your hungers    coded by color, expressed as a function of decibels. 8. calculate the probability that he will come back. 9. true or false: you still have no idea what you’re doing. extra credit: if time allows, find love on a star chart    made up of his freckles.    hint: its secant crosses how you woke up one day    and never wanted to sleep    again.

I have no finish, no / fragile edge.

Perhaps cherries look violent in the sunlight [You are all honey and rage] Perhaps you should let the moon be your couturier.

We have come too far together toward the end now / to fear the end. These nights, I am no longer even certain / I know what the end means.

My father and brother were born with cannonball fists. Avalanche tongues. They know how to light flame to the smallest injustice. How to erupt into fireworks from the inside. The silent anger too. They are capable of keeping te engine humming, the deep vibration of fury warm underneath. Me- I was not born with enough fuel. My anger often melts into sadness, it will just disintegrate into shame or fear, my clenched teeth release into chatter, But you have found the right mix of arrogance and alcohol. Place your hands on me one more time, then again, exhale the cigarette into my eyes, tell me again how I’m just not understanding the point, remind me how you are an expert, touch my knee, my thigh, my lower back, ignore me twice, three times, continue talking over me with the man to my right. There is a beast in my veins that was birthed by my father. It is quiet, it sleeps through most nights. Tonight, sir, my tail twitches in the darkest caves. Be careful, darling. Your footsteps land heavy here. Your racket will wake the dragons.

I know! - All will be burned to ashes! And the the grave will shelter Nothing, that I loved, or lived.