Astralopithecus

The birds
have become

just

annoying.
Why

does the bathroom
smell like a wet dog?

Why

does the moth
mimic the monkey?

I whirled
out the coffin,

didn't I?

Your eyes
cover me

like night crawlers.

and the birds
won't stop tapping

the ether.

Reach Out

The old lady
is gone.

She called
me "Dolly"

this morning.

Perhaps
it was my

cloned
sheep aura,

or, perhaps
the bugs

are starting to
creep into her

foundation,

dying to
touch someone.

Gut Failing

In 1999
I predicted
a mile-wide

tornado

that ripped
through Oklahoma.

My mother
said my eyes

were like
diamonds

back then.

Tonight

in a dream

a mile-wide

tornado

flattened 

Northern Indiana.

It tore through

the heartland

and I never
saw it coming.

6 months later
and you're

still

my little terrorist.

May Showers

I saw Kristen
this morning,

all weird

and in the
front yard.

I think she
was upset

about her egg.

I tossed
some bread

at her, and
she just stared--

empty

and cold
like the dead
     
       places in between.

Nesting

I am surrounded
by extreme birds.

A baby robin
stuck its head out

like six inches
from its nest

and screamed.

One leaped off
of a two story building

like it was going
to commit suicide

but it opened
its wings an inch

from the ground
like Bat Boy

and lit the earth on fire.

At night, I get all
mummy in the sack and

I can hear them
from beneath the sheets,

punching holes in the darkness.

Undertow

You have shown
me an evil

calloused old woman

but, when you ran
screaming

for your lost dog,

I saw a torn little girl
frantic and alone

by the bend in the river.

The Pursuit of Happiness

She told me
she bought the cute heels

because she wanted to feel
good about herself.

It was finals week and English
composition was giving her hell.

*

When those cute heels
gave out in the parking lot,

she came tumbling to the ground
in a pile of meat, blood and pain.

All the pretty parts
broken, her thesis exposed.