Two Week Stretch

 

 Two Week Stretch

 

 

Go on then, fool yourself, it’s unconditional,

and to be over there, would you not kill

the hope that kills you? You’re only as good

as your last words; message understood.

Roll over and beg for a shitty stick to fetch?

It must be expected on a two week stretch

 

inside, well, these walls aren’t shabby chic,

real plenty shook up riyals paid for streaked

bleak marble tile, air conditioners shove out

vacuum within, filling empty mind with doubt.

Hang on every word with knife edge to neck?

Only to be expected on a two week stretch

 

finger cross fret, genuflex hard steel G string,

smart bitten bones, tighten bass flesh stings

into minor pentatonic water marked as toxic.

Misplayed those discorded scales, a chronic.

bum note strummer, composed a fucked wreck?

Welcome, my friend, to your two week stretch

 

out to touch somebody’s lost hand, we’ll coast

palms on sticky keyboards in search of ghosts:

Many million mouse clicks all it will ever take

buffering in thoughtless hollow heartbreak.

Empty in-tray boxes you against rope’s edge?

Only the beginning of your two week stretch

 

a point, sharpening that stick at both ends, hunt

Roger that, let’s up front it, confront it, be blunt:

only when my congealed head crawls with flies

will she even phone, feign surprise and ask why.

Skin in a pulled pork, beef jerked, fuckered sweat?

a plague on both our houses' two weeks stretch.