Maggots in my shoes

Put them on no matter what

Business interview

Don’t recall, poised in empty halls

Patterned and installed, understated, undissolved

Cleaned up the floor, clean to keep unused

Close the bedroom door, close to coming loose, and what’s the use?

Not sure what to do, the flu shot gave us the flu

We heard that it was buried in the yard just past the reddest leaves

And left carried on the breeze, resigned to dig a hole

Consistent with the angles we were told

And we felt it warming up, pushed the earth beneath our feet

Aberrant sound against the anomaly, we gathered close

And like we’d always seen, brushed off the dust and the dirt

As the covering recedes, a gentle glow lit our faces light, but only from beneath

Like flashlights, and bed sheets, and ghost stories

Knowing that we stayed up too late

Revel in hanging on every word

Comforted, no matter how many times, it’s still a surprise

The kind of things we could repeat

The kind of things we could believe

The kind of things we teased, but left alone, we couldn’t sleep

Do you cover your mouth to breathe?

Do you ask for anything?

You close your eyes so all you see, the negative

They used to walk right across the Bering Sea on foot

Can you still believe that if you dug a hole straight down and still beyond

The mantle, through and through the asthenosphere

You’d get to China? But they’re not, nor have they ever been, our antipodes

And just like me, not even halfway through before you lost your light

(and inevitably freeze)

If it’s just down the street, if you promise to be careful

But it’s just down the street, but it’s just down the street

Curtains quickly drawn and hoped no one saw

Resigning to covering your ears

So all you hear is the sound of your own blood

Running downhill to earn your gravity

Ignoring stride to feel free of form

And there had to be a secret underneath, that even though the surface gleamed

As the sole to the feet, or the tongue to the teeth

What you thought was a flower enamored of its bees, you came to see

The mechanics disagree

Found success to pry without marring all the sides

There was no beautiful design, just elaborate mistakes barely held in place

Some off, disfigured view you wish you never knew