Today's poem is by Lee Ann Roripaugh

#klonopinsongs #atavancan
       

hell-o, 3:00 a.m.   ::  vise-clench aching in my chest   ::  hot spillage of tears
hell-o, exponential woe   ::  trouble's raggedy nibble

hell-o blues / you know   ::  my tune / your note well-creased, soft   ::  in my back pocket
your stain whorled into the groove   ::  of my thumb / your bruised hour ripe

                                                ~

hoarse laugh of awkward   ::  first light slatting through ozone   ::  just enough to still
antennae's frantic scramble   ::  for dangerous signals / float

in medias res   ::  in this weak amber / to dream   ::  the weakened spent dreams
of palimpsest and leaf-vein   ::  that recycled teabags dream

                                                ~

o, the relentless   ::  extraction of stuff from self   ::  as if the self's just
a spent tube of mutinous   ::  toothpaste / or a melon balled

all the way down to   ::  sheer-scraped rind / or a cat-licked   ::  plate / o ativan,
(o) tiny moon / please eclipse me   ::  from this cracked and jagged day

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Copyright © 2023 Lee Ann Roripaugh All rights reserved
from #stringofbeads
Diode Editions
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission