#joshshaffer

at times my mind locks itself behind steel bars a small window looking out on burned out grass

a cat walks through the barbed wire fence going as it will

I am furious and a six inch slab of concrete is a continual static shock the lack of contact a poison

so I take a palm sander and grind my fingers to the bone

I bash my skull on the floor- but its the concrete that chips we will never win.

somewhere out in the yard

the cat is laughing as it plucks feathers from a freshly caught bird

another day passing and no one has tried to kill me yet

  the sun is behind the clouds

  and so am I

  _________________________________________________________

the leaves of a tree want the same thing

  we are not one body

no roots

  find your tree

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green tomatoes

hang

  on the decks edge

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the community ethic -an egg

  brittle exterior, gooey cold center

  that raw protein

   _________________________________________________________

  three plug splitter

I don’t like talking I go on dates and just look at the girl

they get uncomfortable and crack a smile

                                  what?          

Nothing, I say

  silence is nice- crisp.

I am a sweaty person

more of a dripping person really

I spend my money

on gas and cigarettes

sometimes meats

to smoke on the grill

life is simple

even through

when you come visit lets go get a drink or too and then go back to my overpriced studio apartment and have sloppy drunk sex

“but I don’t drink,”

well, lets get blue and red and white fireworks popsicles then

I

it rained today I got the top on the jeep just in time

  II

have you ever heard the term dry drunk?

  III

my socks sopp wetness through the hole in the heel of my left shoe

  IV

Tyler Perry, what would Jesus do?

  V

I made a pact with myself not to go to prison

  VI

ambling along in a pick-up death of responsibility looming