On Fire

poetry

He told me that he saw himself on fire
I never understood the things he’d say
But never once did I call him a liar
When there’s no sense, what sense would that make?

He’d always come inside the Chevy freezing
He never seemed to know just what to wear
His T-shirt to his coat, a mere allusion
His blue skin could make a Martian stop and stare

He talked as grand as one could ever wager
High-minded as any man you’d ever find
And when he walked, he always walked un-faltered
as if he was someone you should get behind

I heard he died a week ago this evening
I heard he was high-minded ’till the end
With a book of poems in hand, he found his calling
he caught a bumper for someone he hardly called ‘friend’

He told me that he saw himself on fire
I never understood the things he’d say
But never once did I call him a liar
When there’s no sense, what sense would that make?
And after all, he set himself on fire
saving someone else for someone else’s mistake

The beautiful bastard

cancel the parade

poetry

the sun has greyed
out the clouds
so the children
count the star
at night
and get bored
saying
one
one
one
one
as my mind wanders
trying not to watch
the children play
and call out to their fathers
over their joy in seeing for
the first time in months
that celestial being
in singular