What The Book Wants
when you put it down
you’re far from done
thoughts demand action
demanding blood
you could read another
but you’d just move deeper
as you search for signs
of literacy in the world
They stir up the memories
Rearrange the thoughts
I don’t think they resonate
Unless they touch on love
And then it spills out of your mind
Catches on your tongue
You expel it from your body
Thinking it was somehow yours
Carving in Glass
If you knew at the time
you would’ve taken more care
gone a bit slower
milked it all afternoon
instead you assumed
it was what was owed to you
as your mother’s favorite
the future assured
and yet it’s always been you
even as the other faces and times
have commandeered
the view
you were wrong to assume
a lack of awareness
on your part at that time
wouldn’t have any effect
on your future
I cry for my students
cry for their parents
cry for the species
I haven’t even heard of yet
I cry for the ignorant
cry for the intelligent
cry for the rich
I cry for the cognizant
I take all these tears
I fill a polluted ocean
and start to swim
towards that distant horizon
