but do you

& i know

the same ache

its acrid thickness

making a bomb

of your throat

in the winter

of my bedroom

i hibernate

imagine

going out

instead i perch

inside

the clutter

on the ceiling

there are many ways

of leaving

a woman rushes

into the passenger seat

of her own car

shovels noodles

down her throat

as tho she’s being timed

a few minutes over

her boss

is counting down

do you know

a synonym for unravel

is ravel

is all

the falling

apart

do you know

the way

back

together

do you know i

& you

are interchangeable

in the thesaurus

as on the timeclock

did you know

we mean

the same thing

somewhere

on mission street

a flutter

of pigeons

squabbles over bread

torn apart

& scattered

by the man

from the panadería

who wears a mask

all day at work

when he goes home

to feed his parakeet

he forgets to take it off

do you know

another synonym

for you

& i

is alone

did you know

if you or i

is alone

long enough

we begin

to lose

our meaning

meaning

there are many ways

to leave

weed is a word

we give life

we never asked for

a thing we resent

for how it refuses

to die

that is you

& i

resent the impulse

to live

in spite

in spite

there’s a knot

of sourgrass

in the dirt where

i buried my mouth

its silent grave

a homonym

for any undesirable thing

& there are many

leavings—

somewhere

in the winter

of my throat

under a snowdrift

a bomb

lies

& readies

stevie redwood

stevie redwood is a disabled neuroinsurgent aquarius homotrash bitch from frisco. they like shittalk, porchsitting, leaflitter, & riffraff. find them trolling yimbys on twitter @trash_whisperer.

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