why?
and how much...?
time-wise, we're looking at
a lifetime
of wrong turns
and late mornings
and early nights
and this with that mixed in
like a combination
of six soft drinks, drank in
less than a minute

eating the edges of the computer screen,
hungry hungry hippos, hungry for
attention and contact and social sedation

take me, shaking with my fingers wrapped around
a vile of my own excrement
my own experiment gone awry and you
are gulping all the fresh air from this
tiny,
stuffed room

a selfish, selfish need to breathe, to live
and plan things and make dates and drink yourself dry,
your skin ashy and such a contrast to
your smooth, angelic
face