Fascists and Numbers

I.

              a flash of understanding, and hindrance, and coffee (two sugars one cream)
              and midnight starts the moment it’s over

    and the truth is wherever you are

              II.
someone saved my soul
and i forgot to thank them

              Hollywood, eat your heart out

II    I.

    somewhere someone is waiting
    and waiting and waiting and wa
iting

and
    waiting
          for rain and earthquakes and recognition and i love you toos

IV.

i promised i’d stop calling
once my card maxed out
              but please please tell me
              all the things you told me before

you’re all i’ve got now.





i swear i’ll listen

V.

if it’s worth having
                    then it’s not worth stealing
process that, American Alarm Co.



VI.

i told her i loved her
    , she got down from the ledge,

and then

VII.

i called 911 and said
          there were strange men in my foyer

i don’t have a foyer
i just wanted company

VI, I, I.

sometimes i wish i’d never met you
other times i’m sad because i haven’t

IX.

i turn invisible in large crowds:

          like a population-based chameleon

(also if everyone is wearing a brown shirt is anyone wearing a brown shirt?)

X.

i called 911 and said
    “there are strange men with guns in my apartment”

so the cops showed up
and proved me right

XI.

    real stories do not have beginnings, middles, and ends
    real stories do not have thesis statements and the real world does not have topic sentences

the real world has loss and anger and spray paint and hurt and spiders and fear and craving but not knowing and laughing and being lost and driving and wrong turns because you forgot why you were going wherever you were going in the first place and ending up somewhere better and gasoline and

XII.


i'm handing      you      the reins today.

what happens from here on out is yours to decide:

a new dawn come, a new sun rise, choosing your path and not your father's, making a road instead of following one, why light a match when you can light a mind, falling in love with an idea so you can marry a multitude, i see a little bit of you in everyone i'm never alone, whatever magic i had is yours to have and hold,

d-don't march to your own drummer when you can jive to your own funk, be who you are, write the story you want to read in the world,

begin,

XIV: