if the planets shift
next you’ll probably get
very dreamy if you are in
relationship you’ll feel afloat
together like a holding raft
and not awake
at all you’ll be aloft
on water or the air whatever
pliant element the couch
if your hair is long it will fall
if your back is bare
if your hair is high will mat
when you take
a walk you’ll find
yourself letting yourself walk
one block or two out of the route
not more if you want or you’ll enjoy
relief from the pressure of new
things if you have a child
your shrugs
will frustrate them
you are evolving
knowing your father you will find
him on a porch and hang
out w/drinks if you have ice
if you feel yourself
becoming stranger howdy stranger
if you lapse in love your private love
if the stars are fine the floor remains
in place

this is the part after you find yourself
not the hero but the sacrifice
where you decide your people
deserve you and enter the room now
good move
where you tell your mother she
is more beautiful than traveling
your words are beautiful moreso than truth
it’s not too hot in the Inland Empire
at night blankets
use your hands to tell a long story
wherein not much happens but some jokes
find yourself become abrupt
like a freaky old professor
where in your career you’ve already
shrunk in place and drinking wine it stays
the flush
good story
where you get really knocked up
after a night imprinted badly
hide the child in wood
how free
about when you still bleed quarter time
when what happens at home necessarily
stays between sheets
in the squat you wake with it caked in your skirt
go to meet a friend
to find
you’ve become colleagues

the teeth of time yes square and grin
just emotion has them sharp my soul
is haired my skin has feelings friends
surround me as a shroud would body
break for me the sand widening
pause and when I ask how long
it answers oh not long I had my phone
my cat climbs up me when I was
reading first pressure of the day is clawed
takes my lap up hisses the house then
hums the windows let in news
if I feel it in a shiftmy chair
annotates and I am dumb
as candy in the fridge a chill
not different from warmth
useless when I pushed my empathy
into you shared your sorrow
bared my guilt the best self steps offstage
in clothes not me noisy loves you
weeps to it can’t overthrow me
rigid the trace of temper in the juice
shellacks it into place how long you say