40
words rip
sleep from my eyes
like a rapist knife
in desire of flesh
to drag me
by the hair
like a cheap whore
to bash my nose
into a blood speckled
mirror stained
by snot tears
and bone
my black eyes empty
as the syringe
that hides
cocked like a snake
in the rusty
medicine cabinet
words slice
the sternum
crack the ribs
to peel away
tattooed skin
to shock a heartbeat
from this shell
of a man
overdosed
on the boredom
of sad middle-age
i love you, but
you tell me you love me
baby, you can borrow me
a night or two
a week
lose yourself, your life
between these sex
spent sheets
splash your head
in a pile of red hair
upon my broken
beer bottle scarred chest
drift to sleep
in the sweaty tangle
of my arms
but you can't own me
I am not a slave
to your world
your dreams
I will never work
to support you
to put a roof
over your childrens heads
you have a husband for that
all I have are notebooks
full of paper promises
odes to dreams undreamed
and a bottle of cheap whiskey
to get me through the day
it takes stamina to be me
to keep this fucked up world
from crashing in
baby, you need to work
on what it takes to be you
so you can un-fuck
your own world
penance
she says
she hates me
my poetry sucks
I'm a dime a dozen hack
she tends to overstate
the obvious
which is why
she bores me
why she refuses
to leave me alone
return to her penance
of husband and quiet
housewife desperation
RC Edrington