another kind of kindness

after dinner

I close my eyes

excused from the day and the way things are

the traffic continues

dusk to death of darkness

with the morning

sometimes sunshine

always oxygen and sound to tear me out of dreams

from arms I can't reach

worlds that aren't

through days we'll never spend

forgotten for taxes

and other monsters in the fridge

allowances made

for promises that mattered once

to someone in the mirror

between films I forgot

and the war on my phone

apathy

or another kind of kindness

the kettle boils

I wait for rain and reason

pixels through windows

never here for long enough to warrant where we're going:

one foot in the stream

uphill

boulders and the empire pave tomorrow

into nothing

through the death of every dream.