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.