this puzzle doesn’t solve anything

Know that when you point to my loneliness

as some sort of disease

I can see your misery

through the gap 

in your bright colored sleeve.

 

—

And you will learn

to lift your chin up

to an angle so sharp

the liquid heat

brimming in your eyes

will simply refuse

the fall.

 

—

I walked the streets

earlier in what I thought

was a smart suit

Hurried, like I had somewhere

terribly important to go

From elsewhere a stranger had asked me

what are your long term plans

and I could not think of an answer

I may not even live that long

I was tempted to answer

while I imagine a stern voice warning

don’t tempt fate

but what is fate but the hand of

eventuality

sometimes buried in dirt

planting flowers, in

books, the glorious curls of a lover’s hair

or shoved in our pockets

protected from cold

or from the warmth of

somebody’s fire

I walked the streets and

from the corner of my eye

a little girl shifts and turns

on a folding bed, blue dress

it’s hard to sleep when

your bed is under an overpass

this side of the mall, main highway on the other

you are always just sweet talking

I tell him, he just laughs

and my fingers find their way

to the pimple on my forehead

I am aware of skin,

the hardness of the skull underneath

and how sooner

or later

this will all be nothing