L.A.L.A.

I’ve been hiding among the ants
Navigating the fixed grid of stars
Humming the theme songs of every boulevard
Noting faces and places because names always change
Taping conversations in my car to self–communicate
Blacking out ads for self–actualization
Expand your breasts, expand your soul
Watching naked shellfish wash upon the shore
And crawl into a coke can, cutting up their sides

I’ve been riding mechanical horses on old carousel rides
Babbling in foreign tongues in order to be fed
Stoking the wildfires consuming dead wood in my head
Gathering with relative family incestuous
And obsessed with the grotesque and beautiful
Acquiring trash which becomes furniture
Bums which become friends
Guitars which become keys
Driving streets which do not end

I am here to appease the hunger–beast
Growling at the edge of the world
Drooling on the shoreline

I am here to pay respects to the fractured
Body hooked on life support
To gaze into its impossibly blue eyes
I will hold its hand until the shudder of death
Recording what cameras cannot capture
The return–to–mother mutter of its final breath