It’s time for us to exit
The stage and leave
The animals to shred
Their shadows

It’s time for us to exit
Without looking back
Turn off the light
Set the set on fire
And leave

It’s time for them
To cry our tears
To taste the salt
And the soles of our feet
And lick our spit
Off the floor

We shall burn in their retinas
Like the afterimage of a nightmare
We shall linger
Like the caustic aftertaste
Of regret

It shall burn
And we shall smile
They shall writhe
And we shall smirk
Through their moans

Spill me
Onto their gaping flesh
Like lemon juice
Bitter and bright
Scrape me
Off of their green skins
Like a dead dream

For we shall fester
Wherever they dare to smile
We shall bite
Like a ravenous hunger
They never knew

And we shall recur
Like a hallucination
Like loss
Like life

(Originally posted Aug. 6, 2004)

Song (Re)Cycle 2014: Of Hope II

And so it goes…

Wayward it goes,
Forward it goes,
It goes…

Stumbling it goes,
Hurtling it goes,
It all goes…

And we remain,
Seated in our skins
Picking the remains of the sea from our teeth
Sipping the horizon like it never changes

And humming.

(Originally posted on May 6, 2005; re-posted on July 24, 2006)

Song (Re)Cycle 2014: Of Hope I

Take a deep breath.

Hold it
Until you can feel its green lime
Bite at the edges of your being.

Now release it
So far that you cannot tell
It was ever yours.

Repeat,
As required.

(Originally posted on May 8, 2005; re-posted on July 24, 2006)

Song (Re)Cycle 2014: Of Grief IV

Stuff the slices down your throat
And choke on a smile
The end bounces off of a black screen

The line thins between the zenith and the abyss
He tells me my pain is only resistance
“Grieve!” he says, my agony does not suffice
Grieve loss upon loss until you are unaware of losses

Now it’s their turn to fall from grace
From the stars, from above
And my turn to put them back up
Where they belong

My laughter sobs
And I become, I hope
comfortably numb

(Originally posted on Aug. 3, 2004; re-posted on July 24, 2006)

Song (Re)Cycle 2014: Of Grief III

One more night
tumble from grace:
I abandon my senses,
scatter over the gutters
and pray for sleep…

In corners dank and
pungent I find them,
lurking behind my smile.
Throw them across the horizon
that they may cease to be…

Why don’t you come
out of your darkness?
Shine once more
like the dying sun!
I curl into a lie and roll…

They cry, but we never hear.
They recede further
into memory;
and in it we drown
behind them…

Do you hear screaming
when it’s hoarse?
Do they still rise
like the moon
bloody and round?

(Originally posted on Aug. 1, 2004; re-posted  on July 24, 2006)

Song (Re)Cycle 2014: Of Grief II

And now I grieve their lives
Like I grieved my grandmother
Piece by piece
I put them to rest
I kill them all over again
Just to make sure
They’re no longer breathing.

And then I go to sleep…

(Originally posted Jul. 14, 2004; re-posted on July 24, 2006)

(To Ahmad)

Like an autumn, Tired of the heat.
Like a streetlamp, Bored of its corner.
Cry, In every tear, A star, a name, a pair of eyes.
Cry, For us, Those who have dried.

(Originally posted Aug. 4, 2005; re-posted July 24, 2006)

 Song (Re)Cycle 2014: Of Fury IV

Watch me dig my hole again
Ever deeper
In it I will bury the whole world.

Watch me tear the sunshine
Once more
And stick it in your heart.

Watch me smear every smile
Off every face
Till nothing remains
But amalgamated lips.

Watch me drown again
And again
Laugh me all the way
To the bottom.

(Originally posted on Sept. 6, 2004; re-posted on July 24, 2006)

Song (Re)Cycle 2014: Of Fury III

That day it wasn’t
Our teeth that got pulled out;
It was yours.
But you don’t feel the pain yet;
It only starts to hurt when we’re gone.

(Originally posted Aug. 27, 2004 and re-posted on July 24, 2006)