By Anthony Gonzalez

Freight train 
rumbling wheels cut 
my ties to the 
other side

Welcome
with nothing
I consume
myself

Wounded mouth
Split flash
storm clouds
move past
and I’m lost
with no words
to convey
my reality

words
symbols and letters
scratches on
a surface
muddled voices
choked with chasers
drowned in oil

comprehension
is unlikely
algorithms
breeding
clouds of numbers

Wilted letters
crinkled paper cuts
my fingers
cough syrup coating
my throat

automatic voice mail
ring stain on my table
nicotine coasters
cigarette butts
in my pillowcase

Up is not what’s willing
ties tighten my breathing
use a little
bit more makeup
on the corner
of your window

yellow stains
teeth with names
flesh like water
rancid taste
in my mouth

oak and wool
zig zag patterns
guided by names
slipped a slip of
paper

markers point
to stenciled shadows
shaded doubt
kept in corners
word of mouth
rallied red
purple lid

Jaunt along
hickory smoked logs
lawn mower
guzzling fuel
a steel lover
faceless eyes
steel blades
cutting short
in a whim

blanketed lies
stored in the closet
cover for the cold
pull over your
shoulder

shovels avail
nothing can foretell
the horrors over
green roads
dripped in chains
of breath and lanes
freeways of lead
silver crossing signs

Take a number
seven at best
uprising later
make a gander
wake a rest

Opal? Topography?
Cutlass of cutlery?
Cleaved in stainless steel
martyred in irony.