chapbook

Mysteries of the Moment

Contents

1. To my shoe

2. Mechanical youth

3. Stubb

4. Circles

5. I remember

To my shoe:

How are you old friend? Do you recall our endless summer days? Days when we’d run around so happy, so free. Out in the sun we’d see the world. We had each other. A place to put my feet: something to make you filled.

Do you know I’ve hated you since? Nights would come and I’d take you off. A new day to find something else to wear.

You see, I’ve moved on. I’ve out grown you cool conventions. I have so many pairs of shoes. You don’t feel like home.

Shoes. Countless much brighter, newer shoes. Shoes so new they squeak with every step I take, calling out to me in praise, rejoicing because I have chosen them, I have chosen them and not you.

You, locked away in a closet with other unwanteds. Growing greyer and dustier. Cracking rubber smells no more.

But now I’ve come back. They never fit me like you did. I’ve dug up your decaying sole.I’m coming back. Lacing up and tying, loose laces flaking ancient mud.

Mechanical Youth

Mechanical youth

Industrial minds

We have eaten out your heart

She sits behind her television set

Robotic in her silent room

Mechanical youth

He sits behind his computer desk

Selling his soul through a glassy screen

We have eaten out your heart

They sit behind their video games

Phantom hands taking over these brains

Mechanical youth

We are harvesting a generation

Shaping soldiers for a war on consciousness

Mechanical youth

We have eaten out your heart

Stubb

Do you hear me?Walking ball of fluffSloppy beast, so stupidSo fat

Do you think?Do you hate me? Do you feel anything?

Speak

Do you worry about growing old?Years of nothingSameness CoatsYour dulling fur

Do you ever wonder where you’re from?Do you miss me when I leave?Do you feel alone?

Do you know we’re not the same?Dirty paws Pink feetFive fingers in a fistTwo barks and a growl

Snout

How does it feel?

Circles

I want to cry with you.I want to crawl inside your mind.Sort through your thoughts. I want know what’s behind the smile.What that look in your eye means. Let me in.Open the doors to your soul. I want to hear your heart.Each beat now mine. In my chest. I was thinking that maybe if you let me touch your pain, Maybe when I feel it,It'll be deep enough in me to call my own. Maybe then I can suck the venom from your wound.Make you clean. I’ll catch each fear. Each tear drop in my hand and you won’t have to be alone. Let's cry together now so we never have to again.

I Remember

I remember Read Between the Lions and naked Barbie dollswith messy hair

I remember Fruit Rollups and midnight Nintendo 64with Grace

I remember Velcro shoes and high countertopswith the stepping stools

I remember summer’s tasty grapes and all the bunnies in my yardback when Grandpa could still remember

I remember innocence and joy

I remember Chuck E. Cheese and Lisa Frank before I left

I remember trying not to forgetI remember waiting for it all to come back

But it didn’t.