No-One Is Listening

poetry

You are a pirate transmitter in an ocean of unauthorized frequencies
that cascade together creating distortion and static

My receiver picks up on a stray, clear transmission every now and again
so I can piece together your path based on your current bearings and location

I know that you have undertaken a grueling course through dangerous waters
without the help of your officer, who left you and your few crew members for another ship

The most of it, though, is hissing noise washed out by other radios with bigger amps
and one day among the swirling interference, your signal will go cold

Maybe I will notice.
Maybe I will not.

But based on my most recent data
I will be forced to understand, unfortunately,
that you have drowned

And that none of us other broadcasters
had taken enough time from our programming blocks
to help you out at all

(don’t) rock the vote

poetry

it’s like
a pirate is
forcing me
to walk one
of two planks:

at the bottom
of the first a
shark waits with
gleaming teeth
the taste of blood
already in its mouth

while a leap off
the other would
entail filling the
entrails of a giant
fucking squid.

(perched upon
such a precarious
position, i pray the
pirate will suddenly die
leaving me free
to sail away.)