Nature

we talk about the Japanese.
he raises his hand,
unable to fathom the honorable nature
of a country whose response to the bomb was,
“Details are Being Investigated.”

instead he rides on his parents’ coattails
and their dishonorable treatment
of the teachers who spend sleepless nights
worrying over their students

it isn’t the insurmountable
destruction that he doesn’t understand,
but the subtle differences in culture
that with his jokingly complacent nature
an atomic bomb couldn’t expose for him

Threw, Through

we all know the words he angrily threw
were as sore as the punches he received
the same bitter words that he learned through you
yet through his blameless smile we were deceived

now you take your piece of technology
and throw blatant bitterness back at us
refuse to accept our apology
instead (like your child) make a giant fuss

you be the helicopter, us the grass
shove your way across the unknown landscape
bulldoze through until we are on our ass
force us into the place we can’t escape

someday you will rise up and see the view
of the ungrateful scene you choose to make
you will perceive the punches threw and through
we’ll be the ones who choose you to forsake

Skin

perhaps i wasn’t born for this.
is it etched in my skin,
a tattoo of failure that follows
me wherever my words take me?

they pull me down,
anvils on the dock,
seagulls pecking at my skin,
offering the freedom i can’t have.

i wish my words could be the wings
that could carry me away
from the place where i’m inadequate.
where i could be real, in my own skin.

instead, they’re thrown back at me,
hateful darts into my skin.
if only i could pluck them out
and send them where my heart belongs.

Helicopter

she hovers
a helicopter of
impatience
desire
control

while all we can do
(awkward and new)
is stand beneath her blades
our hair stinging
our faces from her wind

closer she hovers
swooping in on a military mission,
a sniper poised,
aimed,
ready.

but i am not ready.
when i feel her
bullet slide through me
and into the soul of my daughter,
i am unable to
push my hair back,
walk away from the wind,
or drown out the sound of
beating blades from my heart.

Leash

i didn’t have time to write this then
so i’ll put these words on paper now
to let you know just how much
your freakish actions stir me up
to remind you that
one in 750,000
is not at all going to happen
in your lifetime or mine
so shut the fuck up
let loose your leash
and let me go to sleep.