Transcendental with Reincarnation 

I was a bank/ cashier who stole /a five-dollar bill/ I was Laika/ a stray selected/ no more than bark/ part-husky/ part-terrier/ canine space orbiter/ oxygen-less & just animal/ I was a sensory deprivation tank/ there was someone in me/ weeping about tyranny of temporal forms/ I was a long poem called “Nude Rebirth” / I was the age twenty-six/ the realization that water is only good when boiled/ I was shampoo/ I never got to be conditioner/ I was crisp coffee/ leftover pizza/ I was a wildlife documentarian/ staging content/ hurling lemmings to their death/ I was a bomber jacket/ a joint hanging out of the mouth/ a cool look/ I was a book club for one/ only reading Practical Magic/ I was in the literati of Motor City/ colors passing through Piercy and I/ I was public art/ paint chipped/ I was condoms/ hidden beneath underwear in a drawer/ I was a package from my mother/ filled/ Goosefoot pollen/ a note saying “Don’t forget to comb your hair”/ I was a crayon in a sixty-four Crayola pack/ the never picked Raw Umber/ I was sallow space on a calendar/ the minute one of five hundred twenty five thousand & six hundred/ I was a fragmented rib bone/ I was him arriving home/ the knuckles/ I was a tree lovers carved initials into/ deforested/ wood pulped for paper/ I was a verb used wrong in the past tense/ I was a gift/ the best kind
I was you/ I have perpetually been you

Murmurs betwixt Wails

Hello Dolly/ nice mammary glands/ Part/ sheep/ On/ somatic/ Hello mother/ part biotechnology/ I am trying to fix/ it/ the way my eyes say no/ in hell Good/ & the way my lips say no way/ morning I do not crave anyone who/ thinking heaven/ will fall down/ I am over/ stay down I am overthinking/ forbid I thread a story with a needle this thin/ the age we learn/ Six/ blame I/ wonder sometimes I/ hope pages’ act as crusade/ what if I cannot construct/ fowls as deluge/ territory Chickens never cross/ an even more nonsensical / the road a silly blueprint/ joke Intersection/ for your consideration I run into/ my daughter a taxi/ almost hits her/ I don’t have/ honks/ a daughter I/ don’t have an alarm/ technology can be glitchy/ galvanize/ cigarette put out on neck/ factoring dollars spent on lighter fluid/ gasoline drinking/ & it might be cheaper to set my body/ on fire Next words are/ dying & get up/ off the floor I don’t make the rules/ ad hominem/ hey friends I am in talks/ to be slick/ a sexy/ action nobody shows/ piece / battle look/ image/ y/ moment before moment/ after/ combat/ every self a delineation/ Epiphany/ one might say /eternity has the sol ever dehydrated/ a cascade/ distraction is greater than/ cohorts/ fiction/
you’ll see/ I’ll show you