birch bark

ink stained fingers woven winding wires of chain link fences curving back bends under long branches bound in burdensome bundles tied tight by invisible twine and felt by blind unnerving senses storybook children black mulberry stained skin painted cheeks and eyes one morning take to muddy creeks merrily warbling war cries where a tiny fleet of paper boats with birchbark sails strike out stark white against the red sky's terrible warning on the desolate isle childhood banished the moribund manners of adults brandishing twigs and arrowhead stones they thoroughly murdered the make believe wars over fake beliefs and skin colors and properties and tv shows and oil wells and liberty bells and laughable insults. i climbed up the belfry but you didnt notice me. buried my heart in the trunk of a cherry tree. weak from your fever and trembling violenty shattered your teeth of impeccable ivory bled like a silverfish shimmering vibrantly scattered the ashes and named yourself tidal wave armed with a ramp and nocturnal proclivity wrestling tigers remembered so vividly our fingers are figments our lives but a dream we are here then we're gone then its over. hold me back burnt bitter black i'll be there in a minute hold on i just need to relax. its a story i should tell a thousand other ways a secret undisclosed or kept for better days and theres no one who knows exactly what i am but at least this way ill know exactly where i stand. he was the airplane and i was the bird you were the green ray and i was the earth swallowed the world no i wont say a word rise from the ash of the bones and the birth. cold tarnished tin skin devours skin ill be perfectly content if i can continue to breathe in. he was the baseball and i was the dirt you were the artichoke and i am the worm he is the shipwreck and you are the storm you are the ashtray and i am the burn you were the airplane and i was the bird. oh love of mine huckleberry boy has tales to tell skipping rocks on the stream fills his pockets with dreams and lockets and gold hair clippings and silver bells drop a coin in the well.