This heat weighs me down I open a window I sit on my hands Let all the rain in Collapse into air Let all the furniture drown

I’m running max around the house Chasing shadows in the texture of the summer grass and leaves Reach down to pet him as we run Undisputed king and ruler of a hundred acres Sitting on the granite walkway That comes off your parents’ driveway Sit tight my friend we’ll be there soon We’ll go over by the skatepark, I'll take you for a long walk And as you take the world in looking up at me Hope you understand, I don’t want to do this Crying for a long time As we cross a couple state lines I walk them for myself On miles that won’t return Your regal bones in my head We’re listening upwind You’re not quite dead in my head

After the night, the stars burn up with the morning In certain skies that you can’t quite see How long until this cup that’s running over Tips with its weight and rolls right off? Your smile dissolves and falls down around your ankles And it pools there like a lake under a mountain We’re driving through a forest Been breathing out for an hour Watch as ravens organize in rows Wait patiently with your horoscopes and coffee As geese are cooked; as windows break in unison Your star comes down to greet you And it hangs there like Now we’re driving to a forest Been breathing out for an hour Watch as storm clouds organize in rows Eyes open, floaters skating over guardrails and highway signs There are many ways to die out here

Every inch of grass is covered By condensation crystalline Tiny blades all cross each other Absorbing every footfall in the front yard In the morning The clouds hang above me like lampshades The sun is a lightbulb flickering through the dusty tassels below them And I can’t see for shit cause I’ve been staring for so long Living out a dual existence As you straddle fear and action One day to the next performance You stop drinking and smoking reefer Afternoon is a reflection An inverse image of the dawn As the negatives develop Feel your way towards the coming evening, exhausted Missed my stop again in slumber When I woke up it was dark out Walking by the train conductor yelling “last stop” takes his hat off I walk off the pins and needles passing neighbors in their front yards Miles from home my only regret is that I slept through the sunset The brick of the buildings is crumbling around me and pulsing like a wave I catch the last train out The last ones are the first to leave The trees all leafing out in spring And I’m out walking in the lamplight Watching the dust fly The scent of impending lightning is so heavy And I retrace my footsteps Through grass recollecting water Like a wave, I’ll catch the last train out The last ones are the first to leave The trees all leafing out in spring And I’m out walking pulsing like a wave I catch the last train out The last ones are the first to leave The trees all leafing out in spring And I’m out walking

Streetlight against a sunset floats above Keeping time Pale fluorescence is a planet in a purple sky There seems to be a halo around a congregation of moths Who collected there all high on light To sleep it off They’re all above you now And I’m alive there And making circles above Revolving around this planet just because Believing you’ll land back on your feet Is a means seeking an end Warm litter, brand name paper, floats above in the sky Like free advertising - tiny billboards floating by They’ll travel over oceans after their quick suburban stays Waving like those prop plane banner ads at Rockaway They’re all above you now And I’m alive there, breathing that air And making circles above Revolving around this planet just because Believing you’ll land back on your feet Is a means seeking an end Laughing as the stars explode Making a sun of the garbage above us Light refracting as it falls Tumbling towards us, infinite freedom looking for meaning

I read the note pinned on your fridge - get some rest Did you get that prescription filled? The time that’s left fits in a bag - get some sleep Spills a bit each step you take, like water in a pitcher full of ice And stacks of dust gather books in every room Sitting in this house all day - get some air Going out to mow the lawn - cut it down Dirt between long teeth of wood that you walk on and stand right where your mother stood Is your misery an act? What it is has been preserved in a shell Soon you will be floating out at sea, cowering like a child and feeling alive for the first time After school at your farm We were there, bus dropped us off No one home, I ran through the glass door Left blood on the floor

After waking on beaches in the morning tide’s out, rain clouds start gathering to the left Upstate: 2006 A slipstream memory on a disc On toes ear to the wall Walk through forests and clouds that want to rain Upstate: 2008 A bitter pill that you took too late On toes ear to the wall In a factory you saw it, ghost of a horse on its hind legs We drove past the blown out buildings Returned an island to the ocean Open the shutters, let the light in and the smoke out Swims into focus, there’s a reason that you can’t explain Meet me there on the hill with words coming out of everything Write them down the nods and waves of the grass let the light in

You want to please everyone and on average it’s what you do Stuck in a perpetual circling on loop Feel you feel right at home in a way with the plants in the bedroom Take time to water them every day Hear what they say to you And the language that they’re speaking is a liquid that you’re drinking And the chorus of words keeping you awake Sounds are bleeding from somewhere They weave themselves into your hair Foreign faces and foreign tongues Silence coming from somewhere is the island that we’re on Now you turn off the radio, sleep more than you should Step out in eventual exhaustion and falsehood Feel you should probably move away but your garden is like a child Make time to water it every day Who can keep it alive? And the language that you’re speaking is a liquid I am drinking And the chorus of words keeping you awake The sounds are bleeding from somewhere Voices out in the warm air, they don’t care Foreign languages far-flung Ceaseless silence Island we’re on