poem 177 of a poem a day for 2012

street-walking my salvation

wearing the beats of every man

wearing the heat of every Sun

that burns itself towards my undone

I am at war with everything

that counts my longed desire against me

when I cough spittle-clean my airways

when I climb stairways to Heaven

to panhandle at the gates

where those granted admission

seek the light of their dark

I just smile wishes upon

those inside the bright denial brigade

past the barricades of misunderstanding

past the seeded mortality blooms

I've sown into the decades

of pop cultural white noise

whose musk rubs my bark 

with erasable intent

I have always been meaning to scrub

the rust of the ignorance I done playing with

I have always been meaning to slow slide a siphon

for what blood can do with my penance

when I offer my bare throat

for more ways not

to get in this line here

supermarket body parts

freezer section full of hearts

waiting for the thaws

gnawing at the neon Bible Jesus

that says pray for seizures, Edward

and surrender to the strobe Angels of confusion

you can blame the outside

of the window again

and the same song will play

on the jukebox

on the car stereo

and in the quiet

of your soul

when you empty your mind

to find yourself again

EJR ©