That necessary evil,
failure.
The body breaks down,
Crying childishly
For a bottle.
No more sweet
warm milk to
pacify. Thumbs down
Because you see
copper pipes
those sturdy ducts
dried up, stolen,
sold.
A single bed
on a dark dirty floor.
No braided plaited
rug, primary yellow red blue green
black and white, cover less.
The books, naked and open.
A diary, open a empty
Inkwell, a pen without
A quill. Wait for more.
A hand slaps
A label .25 cents under
candy apple cheeks
Born of tears and
Screaming
Learning
Recreational lying.
Running away
from home
My growling hunger
Turns to fear.
Where carelessly
Boredom hides
Its face
Mistaken by death.
Nothing to burn
yet on my body. Dirty
Electrical storms
And outrage
For the empty
Breasts of
Disgust. Shame grows
Beside a weed
Garden where the
Soil hardens
Into rusty clay.
Glowing up worthless
Deep in alternate
currents rides
a tight head.
My hair once
bubbled with curls.
Now straight as
a cactus prick
a crown of
new cowlicks
spin around my
head with the
shock of shame.
On the rocks
peeling open
a rattle snake
Molting to expose
anew. Skin burns
in moonlit
Curtain less rooms.
It’s time to move
Again.
Everyday failure:
Unthreaded and
without a needle
To sew the holes in
a ripped pair of
stockings, darning
Instead
Stay Positive, stay.
Sometimes my mistakes
Reach you and yours
And others myself, me and
Mine. Lead the dense ore of expectations leads
Not to gold, not to diamonds.
My pick axe and
Shovel, sieve and
Headlight
Mocking the brave
Fish that live in the
Darkness so ink black
They willed themselves
A headlamp on
Their hard hats. Darwin
Had his way of
Plumbing the reaches of
My Grace in the name
Of the father who
Died with experience
My tribe hid
It’s treasure from
My failures.
Broken bird-
Sized bites
My genes unzipped
Now simply read
She bred.
Lead her away
She deserves
No less than Expulsion.