Spent Every Word I Ever Owned

Beyond generals and gyroscopes,

Stockholm syndrome become nation:

the visible stripped off

quick as bandaids. Yes,

life can be unzipped
to reveal the maw


of the what is taking place

in the third of a second


consciousness takes to capture

before now


and put it in perspective,

weighing us down so


we drown
in a river of stuff


but keep our heads clear

enough for calories.

Words?

Use gravel to describe music!


...hear a parrot's caw,

see rocketship circuitry,


smell a mountaintop

removed for its coal,


run fingers along doll flesh,

lick a cloud and spit out rat fur,


as all my ancestors coarse in and out

of every sky I ever knew.