my brain fizzing is more my life than I want it to
what’s inside introspection that erupts into annihilation
the pretty side of a cliff is the side you can die off of
elusive girls donning unnatural patterns
reality is the language of fear
I’d rather feel it virtually
distant relatives smashed at a funeral
when I think there’s no such thing as the present moment
the sun masquerading its mug shot behind a headstone
aphorism is the hand-me-down of human ruin
the void oozing its tooth under your pillow
I live inside a perspective I gild by the dumbness of heart
chasing the tail of a reverie
the more vivid the hunger the more private it feels
it’s glum to know too much
my obsession speaks to the obsolescence of things
rotting hydrangea exiting a vase
what is it about loss I can’t get enough of
**
JON-MICHAEL FRANK is the author of two forthcoming poetry chapbooks: Nostalgia Flower (Sad Spell Press) and TBD (Birds, LLC). A book of poetic comics How’s Everything Going? Not Good is out now from Ohio Edit / Cuneiform Press. He is the acquisitions editor for the small press Birds, LLC, and lives on the Puget Sound.
Jon-Michael Frank
