addiction

casey jones never felt this good

fly me to the amtrak bathroom

too many words to say too much

write me a poem alone write

me a template to getting home

write it take a line off my bone

my ribcage encroaching my bones

breaking and faking their way to a card

buying a ticket on tracks harder than

you ever imagined metal more

or less ravaged by time man

broke ground with straight lines

and crosswise the track like

the rail ties ah the ties and

straight they are like the white

lines on the amtrak toilet seats

don’t worry love i’ll disinfect

but it don’t matter i’m never

comin down i’ll always be

around the round round lines

of this straight track A to B

always go back to each other

i inhale sweet metallic ice taste

like breathing in the rails

oxygenated with rust like

all the air i take all of it

in i leave none for the world

i’m not a boy or a girl

i’m a god and i hope i never come

down this line is straight and

round and it all makes sense

and my head it pounds my head

but just for these five minutes

i don’t wish i was dead

—September 2021, San Diego, CA