carry on with your shirt off

carry on with your shirt off
by Meghan Tennison
One Glorious Day, groveling in my fault line,
inert laziness found me panning for gold in
city dumpsters with pet rats & half-cigarettes.
Offered advice, “Wanna go for a ride?”
needless to say anything heedless, i was beheaded
rolling downhill downstairs, you know,
where our lost children go, backward
back-to-back, back where we came from, bad timing
bad time-management, back-flips head-first head-on
On it, right away, no hurry no rush
the wrong crush, wrong answer, Try Again Reset Button
Duck! undercover. Do you hear that? nervous laughter
Is somebody chasing you? I’m running away
from myself, I’m running away from home.
 
Meanwhile, in the future,
hoping the divine stage-fright play-act plays out. Action!
loneliness found me surfing waves in love spells, buzzing
in a bathtub of wine, chocolate coins & a dead phone line
Offered a hand forward toward Heaven
where nothing can hold you back from saying there is nothing to say
you know, back when we didn’t know why
 
with faithful curses on my mind
i bought it, i ate it, it ate me
last loser laughing leaving
treasures to dig up, clean shine polish rebuild
with silly sidelines sighing, awing
encoding moral code, character stronghold
supports, gives shape, creates, sculpts
craftwork hard work, kind hands caring mind
warm blood flowing flustered blush
i applaud, express praise
you are a masterpiece theatre conductor
an eye-deceiving emergency destiny
your body is perfect, it survives dangers
like a time-clock count-down alarm frown
heavy-weight luggage-burden champion
scholarly soldier friendship-curious sailor
Have we met? Oh yeah, last year, in the dark
you were sleeping and i was breathing
thinking&forgetting
 
at the flash of an elbow
from the flesh of the sky
bones fly
mortifying discipline, consensual retaliations
magnified re-fried misconceptions, misunderstood mystique
pleasing manners
please get lost in the stars with me
see the unseen
i saw it once, in your smile.
 
release, lessen the pressure
distort&detonate
relief, increased closeness in
time&space
 
for the first time in a long time, i woke up
with good dreams.