before I ran upstairs, I went to the kitchen to grab my water bottle and straw.. it is already so harsh; the shifting walls and brightening of any room when you’re on it. I need these comforts. the stairs are steep and they were steep climbing them especially with the bend to my back. I wasn’t scared of the stairs, although truly, one could die if they fell the wrong way down them. I didn’t think about this too much honestly. given all I learned about myself, you’d think it be barricaded but I taunt those stairs in thigh high stilettos. no, it’s the water that gets me.  

my room felt safe. no one is ever in there but myself and the cats. I considered closing the door to lock them out because their obsession with being close to me can feel smothering. instead  I keep announcing to them that I am on drugs. to remind them. such a volatile state but I also wanted them around, and on guard. they had a knack for reading me and knew when I was too far out. years of practice. I knew they’d follow me immediately and better for it. they were familiar and moving, a constant distraction if I needed one. watching cats is a pleasure in itself. I wanted my journal that I had been reading the night before  about astrological placements. I brought that upstairs.. I wanted the decks too.  deferentially, I asked if I was able to remove the placement of the cards  on my altar to use them. it felt reverent to ask first. I feel more comfortable in devotion. when I am honest with myself, I can see clearly I am a fanatic.

I placed them on the bed and sat down. I also had a mini composition book and a pen. the composition book only had a couple notes in it to begin with. it was an emergency notebook that lived in my nightstand. in an emergency, or a flush of energy, if I feel the need to write something I can reach over and grab it. the pages were all falling out but I kept it in some order. I liked things neat even in dishevelment. I focused on keeping the pages together as I swirled in place. what am I looking for? began to read about the sun and its meaning for a person: the ego, the way, and the second house of possessions.  and how they conjunct in natal and synastry. possessive. sometimes I see things I’ve written in different places, breezing by become a saint. so much pressure. so much pressure in my head. flipping the pages but my handwriting is scrawl and perfectly coded so only I can read it in my most lucid state and requiring patience. to read my letters requires patience. things would lose meaning and be regained later. that’s synthesis and letting go of what you read. I used to have a photographic memory. eidetic.I found the pages and flipped back and forth between two of them not certain what I was looking at or if I was truly looking at anything of substance. this  was the house of self esteem. there is a theme here of scarcity. my room I mean. it’s full of things and outfits and art. its also a square altar. it’s also full of money, these walls. I keep thinking. I want less of what I own. I’m not really reading but scanning my lines to see what pops. my handwriting is slanted and shorthand, like a doctors. my signature is merely a lowercase and cursive s but drawn big sometimes.

“the sun is active not reactive.” I put my pen back down. was I writing? i’m incapable of holding any thoughts which forces me to breathe deeply. it feels nice to do it and my spine is pulsing and I can sense more pressure coming. don’t look at anything. I lay on my back for a second. it is impossible not to be stimulated in this world. I feel a buzz in my apartment all the time and noise. what always sticks out about the second house is the possession of friends. the love of buying gifts. the generosity that comes with owning someone and with a will to succeed in some way that forces you to lie down on your orange comforter and plot the burning of your house. I began to imagine setting my house on fire. this comforts me: elegies, violence towards self, the extrication from others.

 deferentially, I asked if I was able to remove the placement of the cards  on my altar to use them. it felt reverent. to ask first. I feel more comfortable in devotion. when I am honest with myself, I can see clearly I am a fanatic.

My hair gathered behind the dollhouse. 

I used to hate when it got past my shoulders. It collected back there in globs. The way I find dust bunnies under my dresser now; that was my hair.  When there was an opening, I would tuck it in my shirt, run to the trash can to dispose of it. Little auburn chunks.  I was a surreptitious child. Mostly, I tried to sweep it under the dollhouse as if it would disappear into the carpet. Hoped my mother wouldn’t dust. That’s how I hid everything back then. With a wink. And scissors. A smile. A wish. Staring at lights on my closet door.  I don’t remember my mother ever finding out so I wasn’t terrible at it either.

“I have never let my hair grow past my shoulders,” I say. “Some say that’s the weirdest thing about me.” 

He looks at his hands.“Remember only one sentence has to be a lie to discount the whole thing.”

I smile.
You sneer.
And try not to laugh
and try not to give
a single thing
away.

“doors #5”

catholicism; witchcraft
hidden by design. talking
to palms, glass. don’t let
them take your history
away. whose been lighting
candles this long? and
for what? to talk
to the God.

the second one I called
was Hecate.

I am on the floor
in the stained glass
room with the brown carpet
and the yellow walls
and the paper flowers:
bright orange, white, red,
dusty and a sprinkle of
musk from the places
I shoved them and my
dripping skin;
eighty eight degree body
flailing impetuously
flattening them.

I am flipping over index cards.
the coral & lime sheet is lined
with shells, some broken
and rocks, pieces of concrete I
remember picking up in Maryland
when I saw the perfect house.
a ceramic lemon bowl is full
of dirt from the catacombs,
a burned scripture,
red jasper.
my fingers digging
at the bottom,
tips filthy,
jagged, can
cut.

today we are reading up until
we are forced to stop:
is not easily angered
which means I have gotten
past does not envy
but I have not gotten
past temper,
or
I am indeed a wrathful
cunt so
the second one I called
was Hecate:
have purpose,
a patent resolve.

and I always pause to look
in the mirror,
not unsure. just a
tremor. old reflex
to watch my eyes change.
part my hair,
look past something;
my facile understanding
of this and
my dolorous step.

we break men.

crushing debris
between my fingers
into a nanoscopic
form settling
permanently on my
floor or carried
everywhere
I go on my soles.

“the incantations”

Part 2:

The Act of Blaming things

“yeah the guilty is often
the victim of the injured.”

–khalil gibran

(a postcard)

the art piece was
grotesque in its
simple presentation;
an ostentatious gift to
yourself as I fumbled
openly with indecision,
one foot pointed west,
one stuck supplicating
beneath yours
and we moved right next to
a bar that was closed the
day I planned my relapse.
I wanted the burn of rum
mixed with lukewarm Coke
and the oblivion to follow
me home.


it was a dark copper albatross
that hovered at the top of
the stairs.
I think I was also under
a deep dehydration.
I needed limits and
boundaries but I also needed to
tear the art piece off the wall
and file each side into a lithe
pocket knife that I could
wear around my neck
as a signal of my
emerging masculinity.
have one taped to each arm
and to each thigh
and to each ankle
which is the joke about masculinity:
it’s supposed to contain
a dark wild feminine
but abhors any force,
needs appendage to stop it.

the fourth wave is
more insidious.
I didn’t notice the change
at first but I did gaze up
at the top and wonder
what it’d be like to
leap to the bottom step
and if you’d notice that first
or that a piece of
the sculpture was missing,
hidden somewhere.

“the black book”

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑