Behind me Now

Thanks for stopping by my blog, and keep it classy San Diego! Don't forget new book coming out on Interior Noise Press. No date set yet  check them out here:  http://interiornoisepress.com/
if Dave has published, it is GOOD. Recommend JJ Campbell.

Behind me now

I play jump rope barefoot

amongst the tossed razors and syringes

and once I used a Ouija board to find out who he really was

inside of me.

I lost my echo

when I checked the pulse and found my shadow when I discovered that wine came in a box.

I caught a tiger by the toe once, and his teeth were like the needles I’d later fall in love with.

My mom would cut my peanut butter sandwiches into triangles

I would try to invent a potion that would make me a mermaid.

I could roller skate better than anyone else my age but when I turned tricks

everyone looked the other way

No one ever told me not to swim in the deep end and no one told me that I could never be a mermaid. These things you learn early in life

stick to you

Like the gum my cousin put in my hair when we all went to Six Flags.

I stood on my sand pail

and tried to hang myself with that jump rope once, but all I got was a scratched knee

and failure and sadness

that would stay with me forever

as I realized that sometimes there really is no way out.

Prisoners act like prisoners

and I feel like I should be singing the blues Put shackles around my ankles

and perhaps my behavior would make more sense.

I just wanted you to know

That  I still want to be a mermaid

And that jump ropes

Ain’t good for a hangin’.