Neon, Fish Tank Rocks

I’ve seen the men, alike, ragged breasts on a beautiful rib cage

I’ve seen the women, like broken camel knees

I’ve seen these bent backs of these creatures

shave sheets of grass from the city parks

and wear the worms as their veins,

the sheets as their skin

These creatures cross their arms and hold bouquets

of bottles with aluminum can tabs over their eyes,

some with parched tongues still

prairie dogging for milk from the sky

I don’t know death the way these lives know

the dirty hell of this heaven—

not a child’s mind where all the chutes

and ladders end when we are done

If, and these creatures know, heaven is the

return to a child’s mind, (head nod)

then I’ll join the ranks of them

wearing the filthy earth like hell

I’ll dig all of their graves when

I’m tired of talk about death,

wombs in the soil and blankets of flesh,

every hole I’ll fill with the neon fish tank rocks

because their coals in this heaven

are hot as fuck.