ESSENTIAL

this preference we have for inventing
boxes like adolescence
doesn't serve us.

we are always works in
progress no good at anything
that has to do with meaning.

we are never kids or adults,
these are labels and insults,
and they don't resemble

this
simple
presence

which is our essence.

INSTRUCTIONS

starting a poem think
of what matters most
or of something inconsequential
worth staring at or ideally both.

take out proper
nouns and long-

limbed descriptors and
just use words

that fit like old
sweatshirts.

don't let clever
images damage

clear prose; use line
breaks and deliberately juxta-
pose in order to engage.

be not afraid of rhyme but try not to
be too obvious and
know when

to stop.

VERTIGO

you can label this feeling
of nearly unbearable
straining an "invention,"
and yet, it doesn't lessen.

this ache, this
visceral pain
isn't located
in the brain.

and blaming others
for seeming better
at keeping things together
doesn't matter.

if you are lucky,
and you are, folks
keep telling you --

you wake up
alone
even if someone is beside you.

and you have to
face it, the day, just
as you lie there at night

eyes wide open hoping
something or someone might take you
away.

FALLING

why is it only
at breaking points
you start to wonder if
all ultimatums come true
too late

and you feel so-called
burning ends against
the middle is no deal
with the devil but
(an) awkward and too real
expression of fate?

you remember nights
when you could only lie
down to shake;

but older now, evening time
it feels natural to fade

with no hesitation
or negotiation --

until you are simply no longer
awake.

MINIFESTO

critics and cynics project
derision at what they see
as a lack of ambition.

but it is not wanting to
make a mess that inspires me
to write less.

(small verse is best
suited to what i'm trying
to express.)