Gloom

I could have tried watching Donnie Darko

Under the shadow of a couple volcanoes,

But in the fiftieth hour of ash-dusk, I just don't know...

Perhaps contemplating the mysteries of the universe

While resting at the feet of fiery Hephaestus

Just felt like it would be a little too much.

The Real Reason Writers Make Terrible Husbands

All things with beginnings are all things with ends,

Which the modern world follows with detailed post-mortems.

Some people are consumed by the memories and questions,

But I am somewhat nourished by those kinds of might-have-beens.

Why take permanent plunges, risk desperately-ever-after,

When my breakups keep muses well-fed now hereafter?

The Incongruent

My body makes paths through the physical world, just as you do,

Although I have been, on occasion, sorely tempted to refuse.

To do otherwise would be impractical, and likely rude,

But all the time I wonder why I'm wearing this stupid man-suit,

Which I cannot help noticing is only a disguise

Designed by someone else to suit another species' eyes.

At times it is a vehicle. At times, it is a lie.

It would surely be easiest to dismiss me as a cotard,

But to say what it is I truly am, even for me, is hard.

Extra Extraterrestrial

No plans are just what I want from a day.

Well, that and means–and an excuse–to fly away.

With a beat for a seat and a melody for thrusters,

I killed most of an afternoon in a parallel universe.

I made my waking life surreal enough for bed,

Seeing new worlds without the mess in the back of my head.

I've grown to love the abstract and the distant, the unreal,

Despite, and all the more for, their somewhat limited appeal.

Some might say I could miss things here on earth while I am gone,

But that kind of worry's not my kind of thing to waste my time on.

Patient Presented With No Outward Symptoms

They say feelings of the heart are visceral. When mine attack

I do indeed find recourse in being Jon of the Iron Stomach,

Which is a thing that I am and a thing that I do,

Because to be human would be to vomit my feelings all over you,

and though I do it for me, the rear end of my mind knows

That to express brief infatuation's inconvenient for us both,

For you as a person and myself as something other than.

Indeed, if to disregard us both for my own sake is what is human,

Then I want even less to do with humanity than I was thinking.

Pulled

When I was young I had no empathy for ancient Orpheus.

I never understood how it was a man could miss

One person to becoming universally bereft,

But I think I understand now. Ever since the day I left,

I've thought of you occasionally, and once I wished you'd call,

But I'll go nuts in five more minutes if I can't watch some baseball.

The Flexibility of Unconventional Tastes, or Taking a Break from the Art of Saying "No"

There are plenty of issues that get my motor running,

But sometimes even the activest press pause.

I still won't watch what everyone else is watching,

But not every rebellion needs a cause.