the miles tick off
as the trees become
a blur on the side of
the same highway that
bisects my longing
and my sorrowful
feeling of never being
enough

the record skips
the repeated refrain
screams
there’s no big bang
just a big mess

i used to dream
when i was little
and life
held the promises of
unexplored ruins
but you never truly
leave your home
no matter where
you end up
the scars always form
a map back there
the only remaining
mysteries are how
to put one foot
in front of the other
when giving up
is the siren
drawing sailors
into the coral reefs

the first fish to
crawl onto land
told his kids
he was just going
out for smokes
and so on and so forth
until all there is
after untold millennia
of evolutionary
disasters
are the abandonment issues
of a boy that only
ever wanted to make
mommy smile
while dad smoked cigarettes
half cocked on
cheap beer
falling asleep as
the television
consumes the silence