overheard conversation #1

no, I

didn't cross

the border, ese,

the border

crossed

me.

some nights

at the word

'sadness'

insects crawl across my arms

my name is not Magellan

my future points in nine directions
but
I am too frightened to take another step

a warning along the bottom of my map:
"Here there be monsters"

and yet still I stand

and wait for wind to rush
me off the edge of the
world

chrysalis

the rain reminds me of so much change

I think of pennies making suicide leaps

into fountains

thunder is the sound

of God rearranging the furniture,

scraping the couch against the

hardwood floor

this year, I hear it like

I live in the apartment beneath his

but

in the warmth of your bed,

a quiet moment

blankets us

you rest your head against

the irregular pauses of my heartbeat:

footsteps going up the stairs

on picking colleges

capitalism is weird
you are supposed to shop
for your future

tufty cat paws

my cat

folds his paws beneath him

like an origami cat

so as not to get them dirty

his nose is a drop

of rain on his face

as a small child my grandmother

asked me,

"What do you want to be when you

grow

up?"

I said, "A cat."

I still want to be a cat.

two kissing faces, now a goblet

friends

are sometimes

optical

illusions

turn picture upside down

and you are left with

a rabbit

an old woman

a lightbulb

now turn in a year-long circle

the picture has changed

you are out of it