a whale learning to walk

something outside isn’t right

because the day is

shorter than a stripper’s skirt

and everyone remains

sick with the morning

is healed by the night

and are ill again when the sun yawns

as though nothing changed

even though they have

for they brought home

a story of these girls

real pretty

funny too

whose father wasn’t there

and so they were instead

because their father

wasn’t there either,

so both of them

the guys and the girls

hung around with

heat leaving their bodies

rusty nails

and snow

that hid the steel

sacrificed to hope

and something better

than this now

*

slumped on a beach

with people roasting

and seagulls calling

to waves to crush us all

into sands of food

if only there was more wind

and less us

i am imprinted

with the idea that

this isn’t beautiful

even though

i can’t see much

with the sun

and the burnt offerings

around