Trauma

Trauma

I remember your

Crooked little smile

Eyes closed tightly

Poised atop a wobbly washing machine

With your hair on fire

Cigarette angled perfectly

Nonchalant

Daring the whole world

To ask just who the hell you thought you might be

I remember how you loved to fight

Riding your bicycle blind into

Ocean View Avenue’s traffic

Every night

All the drunks watched

Passive

Placing bets on who’d steal your wallet

You were a

Clockwork subterfuge

Time bomb with your skin dyed

Pink and blond

Tethered to a vivisected ballerina’s

Quackery clever

Clinging to dramas pondered by

Little tragic men lost in the rain

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Whose handsome winsome faces

Melt off from the pain of

Dancing on tsunamis

With a plastic static haze

We saw you flickering

Back and forth in blighted delight

Like the heartbeat of that elevator operator

Who caused the Tulsa riots

We all knew you were lying

Then

Trauma grinds its teeth

Puts on a vague stare

Curses everyone

Everywhere

When

You so willingly

Confused acrimony with chivalry

Serenity with doubt

Codependency with serenity

Articulation with clout

Drooling

Shaking maniacally

With an axe in your hands

Waiting

For the world to just

STOP!!!