Enjoy Being Human

Someone Named Greg

knew my name,
ordered me to finger paint

a water fowl design
in a black light disco space

I cast gray shadow
in my lack of black euphoria

the ether, the synapse, the paint chip
chronicles candy in a bottomless bowl

bait and switch technology
sea salt downing cheeks

for an eternal Maybe. There
are worse ways to suffer

Starvation, thrown off a cliff,
mauled by bears, stabbed in the cornea.

My stain is permanent now.
how to pull walls down

cheer a business park on. How do I
find a new devastator? I cannot

look at your face. Other faces
know your protein levels

I hate you for making me ashamed
at wanting to know your day planner

Why do we have to be so 1960s cigarette commercial
cool about everything? A carnation grows pink

on my sanitarium tongue
your slow Sunday burn

I am gone and I just
want it to rain on your front stoop

think the sky is crying over me
because you didn't

my lacks pouring
into your small eyes

your forearms will rust
no one to rub oil on them

the tiny hairs the sinews
the captive prisoner sprawl

when your body makes an A shape
You said I was amazing

but that's not enough
All of the hers of the world

my left ventricle clogs up on me
spits out steel balls of ghost photos

my female clan clog betrayed me
women are everywhere. All they

do is shop for pink sweatshirts
and body spray

Your Instagram likes explode stars
until the toxicology report

is so loaded with bikinis, nipple slips
and smacking noises my sanitarium

closes for a month. All the redheads grow
hydroponics, the brunettes hold up

peace signs in Dancer pose
the blonds braid in extensions

and practice 80s porn sounds
I try to vomit to make more room

for likes but a protein shake grows fur on my
tongue. the most placid petals, the worst delicate mauve.

I have to water it with expensive Lush
bath bomb water you soaked in for twenty

lashes instead of growing larger
the flower shrinks

misremembering whose tongue it is growing on
I feel it's roots under my teeth

down my throat
I know what the roots are searching for

They'll never find it.

The Hose

I wanted the hose to be a snake but
it slithered meek kneed sideways

buried itself shyly under dandelions
turned Kermit green, barfed wood chip garbage

hose wanted to cartoon the ground
scatter skittles and sticky thumbs

form new tea parties
over orange record player boxes

invite rabies to snack time
wish on rabbit whiskers

blow open a chipmunk's hideaway
didn't want to do its job

tangled up in plastic Fareway bags
invade the recycling

froze up on me when I needed
conversation most.

Why don't you unwind
I asked it

cold and thick
it found my warm neck

ordered me to finish the
power washing alone