Today was the darkest
sunny day I've ever
seen
The shadows were
bright
There was a butterfly
fight
Deep within my bones.
¿Qué tal,
Carlos Marrón?
The soda man was doing
business with a
door,
and a gale of bright
and hateful
light
blew the fingers
out of my face,
as the sun
began
to roar
I felt furious,
and poor
Walking down the street
of cobblestone
grasshoppers,
Like the corpse of the world
chirping at my
feet,
And my conversation
shattered
as I dropped my
ears onto the sidewalk;
I sliced my fingers
on my phone
¿Qué tal,
Carlos Marrón?
I love my neighbor as myself,
even though the smoke
billows
all over my
laundry
when he BBQs his garbage
But we get along,
and the song
from the
radio
escapes the birdcage
of the world,
And watching it fly away
somehow makes you
feel
just a little less
alone
¿Cuál es tu problema,
Carloolios Marrón?
And I had a friendly conversation
with some street dogs
and a child,
smiling
under the weight
of a nonexistent chore,
The soap water
ran
through the corpses
of the insects,
like tiny
islands in the street,
And it wasn't good enough
Not for the street
dogs, not the
child,
And it was like the street
was weeping
in an attempt to cleanse
the world
of misery,
and sin
Waterfalls of fire,
Rivulets of gin
And the river
was an epitaph
chiseled
into stone
¿Qué tal,
Carlos Marrón?
My cat's too good for it
as well, and
maintaining his obliviousness
is perhaps my greatest
privilege
Salvaged from the monster fire,
We drink our milk
in silence
And the moon with the barbed-wire
face,
reminds me
to keep one foot
always out
of town
It's like they say in Spanish,
What's your problem,
Charlie Brown?
©2024 Nathan Payne
