pet rock/couch lock

you do not have to be good

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pet rock/couch lock

              you do not have to be good. 
I didn’t realize I had misunderstood. 
I was thinking of when Icarus fell
                     and my anonymity	
dark and shipwrecked within me
of everyone that came before
endless not like a well

I could write of a funny twilight 		
of a fog that passes by but never touches
under the fingers of a water-warped door
or pressure like a cannon building on the ocean floor

                        but it’s not about me – 
it’s about something only I can’t see 
or answer for
        you implore good begets good 
but when god builds a church 
the devil builds a chapel next door
	it rooted deep in the sediment of your subconscious’ shore
that only the dead see the end of war
I won’t bother with questions I’ve asked before
nor answers for questions I can’t ignore 
	
	I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth 
life was a loose thread hanging on the wing of a bird beneath a star
                       in the nightmare
                he threw a knife at my      heart
      because I can’t help but go too far

but in the dream I find what’s mine
I see people everywhere 	all the time
and would give anything for a reason
shuffling through the rose garden
tripping on an inner Eden
telling you that Eve was right		
                                she had it all made even
	  and I'm stuck in the unbelieving
while she planted violets at the end of the season 
I headed for a city I barely recognized
praying that the violence would cease and
	my finger catching the print of the Times
the only loving permanence I could ever internalize

and as we move beneath the surface 	
watching the earth rise from the moon
scuttling to the insurgence and waiting for the trees to fall soon
you say the readiness is all        and all that will be 
is everything I asked for 
        and nothing I need 

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