Lies My Devices Told Me, Pt. 2

My phone says I am out of minutes.

Sounds ominous,

But what it thinks it means

Is that I can no longer talk to people,

and a mere cover story that is

For the bigger lie, the salesmanship,

the fortune-seeking foray into flattery—

Implying that I know how to talk to people

In the first place.

Lies My Devices Told Me, Pt. 1

The camera always lies.

It doesn't add ten pounds,

Or affix funny filters.

Photoshop is a mere fib

Next to the lies of the lens,

Which says that you are visible,

That it is even possible

To see or look at people.

You can only see a body.

You can only know a person,

Or maybe, if you're lucky,

You can understand.

Glass Half Broken

If wishes and hopes
Were bishops and popes,
We'd be knee-deep in goop,
With more chiefs than soup—
An ill-starred cohort.
Life's more brutish and short
and less Harry Potter.
(I've known chasers and beaters.)
I don't use fractions on water,
Just milliliters.

It Isn't You [It Is You (It Isn't Just You)]

You're not “someone I can talk to.” I'm just talking.

I never did learn shame, discretion, or inhibition.

And sure, I'm comfortable enough around you to nap,

But that doesn't mean a thing; I didn't sleep in your lap.

I trust my sleeping safety to my girth and my wheeze,

and all those times I shook Death's hand at cocktail parties.

I did wake up and have to ask what time it is,

But never know; I usually wake up and think that I'm still a kid.

In short, don't go reading into anything I do.

It isn't you. It is you. It isn't just you.

To a Girl at Safeway, Whose Time I Wasted

I have misread, miss-stepped, and misquoted.
My demons have grown scratchy-throated
From the smoke I've been blowing 'bout being improved,
But I oft' spend the half-minute that I need to choose
You as the best of ten years of mistake.
It was honestly made, with the lowest of stakes.
No one was left hurt when all was done...

...and it really did seem like you'd be fun.

The Only Part of Romance I Remember How to Do

I wish I hadn't done some of what I did.

I wish you hadn't done most of what you did.

I wish we hadn't done a single thing we did.

I wish you didn't exist.

The problem isn't what we did, or what we do,

Or even the fact that you exist.

It's just that that I don't know any way to

Forget about it.

Results of the Experiment were Unrepeatable

I have gotten into trouble

Wanting to be different,

Wanting to be better,

Wanting to be something.

I have gotten into trouble

Wanting to believe,

Because there is a river wide enough.

There is a mountain I can't climb,

and just because I did it

Doesn't mean it's not impossible.