Memories

Remember when I sat on that
couch in Hyattesville, MD, I all
but owned the first floor and the
shower in the corner past the kitchen
with its black ants crawling up the
wall and getting wet by the hanging
shower head--crawling on my clothes,
sliding into the sink--those fucking ants,
I couldn't save them and they
followed me into that small green
tiled foggy cell;
Remember how I'd watch them
uneasily while undressing, like the slugs
slithering across my kitchen floor in
dead-winter, thinking, "What the fuck am
I doing here?"

new rooms old rooms

I write(approximate) THESE dreams
that drive me mad
                           mad
                                  mad
Kaleidescope visions upside-right
ashes perched...sad-
I'm about to start cupped water over my right eye
burning squinting and afterthoughts.

I fool these dreams to drive me away

and
you

are near.