The style of text on your tombstone (v2)

Always preoccupied
w/
negative patterns of energy,
& maybe
they weren’t wrong
in a past setting

since important at the time

but
are they necessary
now
that you’ve
emptied your own grave,
only to fill it up
again

just

w/ better dirt   

Cunning dupery

Self-deception
&
denial

are the only way
to maintain innocence
in this world   

By or for, I can't determine

Exactly what
a drawer
full of clean towels
needs:
a dirty one shoved
back into it

by
inconsiderate
measure   

PAIN

Just
another
four letter
word

suffering from
its own overuse   

Myself

From yourself

When
nobody
can save you,
not even
death   

Your daily tripwire

There’s always an agitant
set to break your concentration,
when already wound
so tightly
in the lurch of monotony,
while working rusted wheels
for
bare minimum

a progressive thought
or
a genuine emotion

leaving you grasping onto the remnants
of what ground you may have gained
in whatever line of thought
was wound
throughout the day   

The more you get bit

Surviving
a snake bite
is not the same
as
becoming immune
to its poison

confronting
a fear
is not the same
as indulging
in what
was once feared

& perhaps it comes down
to
if you aren’t looking
for a cure,
the meaning of
having
survived a deadly
fear
changes   

Hands on

While
administering
treatment to triggers
in the muscles
of
her fractured back

I traced every nerve
that
begged for mercy

crying & shaking
thru each
breath

like
a torture victim
she told me everything
that could possibly
be
said

about the pain
&
about the relief

as
nerves let out wails
thru her speech,
knots w/in the fiber of
muscle
balked w/ ease
&
bellowed each letter
of the word
agony

conveying
the
reality

personally   

History repeated

NO
AN ACTUAL BUSINESS
w/ what we
already do for fun,
she said to me
w/ pale glass glimmering
in her eyes

I said
do what you want, but
on the day I go
don’t stutter over the reality

but what came to pass

she drug it thru the mud
for years
& tried to sully
every external association I had
for her to survive
on me,
when I was barely surviving
to begin w/   

& to this day he respects me

Apparently,
he had a crush
over me, but
couldn’t manage
the right
words

& by the second
restaurant
we worked together,
his finger
was shoved in my ears
so often

I finally laid
a steel toed boot
into
the metal rod
in his leg
from
an old sports injury

the pain
was such, to
muffle
his screams he
broke
what he could grab
between
the bev station
& dish pit   

Strive

Thru an acute haze
in near 100 degrees
of multitasking,
a waitress grabbed
a salad from expedite
right at
ticket time,
but I stopped her
on a glance:
WAIT
THERE’S A HAIR
(which I plucked from
the greens w/ ease),
& she smiled
wide
as she stated:
only YOU
would have seen
THAT