less bigger than the least begin

[thevisiblecat]

i guess i was more certain
in my youth
and the older i get
the more i just
don't know
or maybe
don't care

i donno

i circle my voice
like the echo of a stranger
bounces

i know what it means
when you think you've gotten good
at hiding yr drinking

i stand at the door of my room
arms crossed
and confused of its floor plan

i decided to become a lawyer, welder, pothead or husband
but laughed and relaxed into my chair to write
stories or sad songs
things i've seen done to other men
lets clouds pass like paychecks
and decisions ignored
burn corn stalks
into the driveway stained
with transmission fluid and trim jobs

i know/i know around here
the dog howls too loud
and the calculator has a dirty mind
and i don't work enough
and you don't work at all
and our policies are expired
and a poisoned mouse stumbles into the etc.
of our nite

the velvet ship of my fingers
collect the lice of my death

my fingers are houses
too close to the road

a buttonhole
in the unnamed field
where the squirrel
is blind/content

worms are words
and those who cannot share
are killed in the valley of the unburied

my father moves in
again
after he wrecks his race boat
his flesh was the limb
of a neighbor's tree

how much more than enough for both of us
darling. And if i sing you are my voice,

and if i don't,