the marble hearted and their jars taking cues from motion picture stars

if someone only listened/only heard/only knew

                       tried to keep him alive

what would he do?

glimmer      wins

                            but only at night

it’s easy to tell the wrong from the right

it’s not so easy to follow through

marbles underfoot

 oceans too

iknowwhattodoiknowwhattodo

                        i know how to say it                                    just don’t know if it’s true

this music

                                                       it’s making me

you   

is it telling

                                                                                                  the 
                                                                                      truth?

this one’s a smile   this one’s a joke

this is that one time you convinced me to smoke

this one’s amazing    that one’s apparent

the one by the door is simply inherent

what a mess now that it’s all come to naught

your sisters   d’ they tell you?               weren’t you taught?

look

this one here’s from ninety-six

that one is made out of bitters and bricks

that one waited until the drums had gone out

this one looks like sam smith’s oatmeal stout

the one on the rug is certainly too proud

to ever call back

or say it out loud

and there’s two in the kitchen made entirely of lust

                               and one so well hidden you might think 

      

                            that it’s     us

the promise you made is the promise i keep

every night when            and before i can sleep

when angles are open and arrogance dies

when                               the hopes/hearts/and dreams          mix

                                                                                                           with the supplies

when the last of   the gentle    have eaten and gone

and your line of defense is a tom waits song

             it’s the saddest sound that you’ve ever heard

without the need                         for a guitar   

or a word

and the pride that you thought would carry you through

                       is as useless to me as      white boy blues

but every syllable leaving   her   mouth

                                              is soft

     and assuring

just like the south

hope is fantastic and meaning the word

the melody felt

not the melody heard

the remedy thought but never applied

and the lonely ghost

of a  question

                why?

* this is part one of a two part series written with Alexandra Clifton.

you can see both in the new issue of we, the notorious pronouns

here