Thinking In/Feeling In

Baltimore, Maryland July 1985 I curled two fingers under the chin of my mask and tore it off. I chipped away at myself with the tip of a syringe when no one else would do it for me. The nurse’s assistant, the friend of a friend’s cousin from the suburbs, Read more

Loving and Leaving an Alcoholic: Am I Self Centered?

The day after spending Christmas with family, I received a text message from a close relative. You are a self-centered piece of crap. Good riddance. You’re not welcome here ever again. Period. Everything was planned at our expense. What the fuck did I plan? What the fuck is everything? I Read more

Prize of Poison

I want it. No,need it, the panacea; Or, perhaps the exhilaration of the release trailing after it – unsure which; Does it matter? Drink to numb. Calories purged. Caffeine pulsing. All drenched in familiar relief. The isolation I don’t want, but it’s mine, handcuffed to me, by a rusted padlock made of shame. Read more

The Reformation

I became a poet the night I didn’t die that long fuckin night smothered guilt suffocated shame unaccountable years pills and dead prayers Hollywood broken neon bulbs a lost darling sinning a beggar faux reality loved everyone hated everything a fallen angel ripped jeans a tarnished borrowed halo diseased dreams Read more