BUT I KNOW I WILL BE

Every step I take
To run away from fate

Reels the line in closer
Draws the imminent

Mackerel in
Fighting all the way

I know she thinks the same
About her mother

She fears the same
Hook and line

So we already have
That in common

I don't want to be
Anything like my mother






SOMEWHERE I’M SHAKING MY HEAD

My expression glazes over
lost within my own trance
I shake my head

I'm present. I'm water
Reflecting back upon myself
with daydreams of tomorrow

I feel myself gushing
down consciousness.
I swim this way

and the current fights back.
I float that way
the water takes me with it.

Depending on the tide
I’m flooded by these
inebriating thoughts.
I travel down the waterway
expecting rapids or river snakes

at any moment, contrived

by my own fears. Poised to
pop all aspirations like chewing
gum bubbles.

I can see docks up ahead
exits to disembark at, but the sun
above me begs me to stay.

Blue eyes, a red bird's
wings cut across my stare.
Some hope

blooms with the lily pads.
The water's lucid daydreams
float me down further. Past

entangling seaweed, I've lost
my anchor somewhere in this river,
my left shoe with it.