WRITING OBSTACLE

Create a character who in some way embodies these three words: rough

cracked

ravenous

Isn’t this Poetry?

Poetry

The sound men

The sound, sound men

make with their dry lips

around the rim of empty bottles,

speaking their foul breath into the glaringly empty amber pit

(that little whimper of the strong man, who can’t lift himself from the bottle)

the sound

the unsound sound that bleeding bears make in the falling woods when caught in jagged men-traps

you study the poet

in their natural habitat

(I’d wager it’s hell, really

I’ve $50 that it is)

the world is a zoo

I won another $50

for whoring my soul around

I took off my skin

and threw it off the stage

if that’s not funny, nothing is

Poetry is like dying

I want to stop but I really can’t help it

I had a thought

or a dream maybe

that I flew to Victoria

with wings of rot

and crucified myself

near sandridge lookout

and you laughed

and I laughed

and that’s how I’m doing

I guess

I don’t want to be anymore

I don’t want poetry

I don’t know how to want it

God doesn’t believe in me anymore

My soul is rotting again

Just like before, sweet children

Now you have me again

And you can love me

You can have these rough eyes

have my broken mind

take my hungry heart

be a friend to me

watch me fucking die

tell me I’m pretty

I can say I dreamed of you

I was eating my fingers

You didn’t see the poems in me

the didn’t see them spew out

you turned your head

and went to kill God

And I gave you my all

the applause sounded like Frost

my cheers like Poe

Then I turned to dust

and the girl walked over me

kicking me up to the wind

walking in her actual smile

writing something I could never

You’ll only love me if I hate myself

So, clap, you lot

clap until your hands are like mine

live until you’re dead like me

die until you’re alive

tell them all I’ve returned

thrice the ghost I was before

the glass is half dead

pour me around, darlings

around your blistering eyes

I’ll make you see it all like I do

I’ll pull you down into my grave

I’ll make you cold like me

I’ll keep you warm

because we can be friends again

now that I’m falling apart

Now that I’m dead , and dead , and dead again

(Whoever it is

that is

dreaming of me,

please wake up soon.

I can’t breathe anymore.)

I had a dream you told me that you learned something from me

and I felt equal parts overwhelming pride

and gut wrenching disgust

I only want to know you love me

So I can call you a liar

I suppose I’m sicker than we all thought

Don’t tell my doctor

I’ve been skipping days

I don’t have the money to get right