4/30

My life as an ordinary salesman

Wake, eat, sell, eat, sleep

Repeat.

Tell me that my life isn't worth living.

I've got 5 empty shells that say it is.

2/30 & 3/30

2/30

My lungs are all aflame with the water that is clogging them
Like cholesterol to the heart
They shall be filled with ominous things meant to break us down
And to kill
The home on the left once housed a famous madman
People thought he was sweet
Dutch angle of the floor to remind us of this crooked place
Adjust my heart with a leveler
There is a war going on for your mind and I am but a soldier
I won’t tell you to think but I will make you and you will hate it
What if I told you that the things you believed were false
What if I provided the evidence necessary to shake the Westboro Baptist Church
I hope your God burns on the cross so he has no body to resurrect with

3/30

Once there was a man from Nantucket
He died on a Tuesday
His wife had the arms of tree limbs in her backyard
She wore an apron
“World’s best cook”
She could only see past the kitchen counter.
Her daughter mowed the lawn
The chopped up blades would float around her like a hurricane
She turned green with money.
Envy was upon the horizon as the foreigners caught wind of our expenses.
They hurled bombs like Greek gods across an ocean of glass
our land was dented like a car in a wreck
We were wrecked.
Disaster zone.

Shrapnel flew across a forest.

6 men dug a foot each

The 7^th felt the warm sting of a viper in his back

He was from Nantucket.

They called him Joe

It was Monday.

1/30

My name is Danny and I talk too much.
I grew up playing baseball in the spring summer winter and fall, in that order.
I was always trying to be a daddy’s boy so i wouldn’t end up like Johnny,
the momma’s boy who loved dinosaurs a little too much
and dipped his Cheetos in his apple sauce
and played Pokemon like he was talking to God.
In fact I tried so hard that on my Fifth birthday,
my mom bought me a starter pack and red version
And in middle school they called me “stilts”
because I have half the blood of a Kamikaze running through me
but I’m surprised they didn’t call me stunts because id jump through hoops
with a triple back flip and a half pike jus for the red eye of Sauron to be focused on me
Oh what a wonderful life it is to chase the American dream like a mist in San Francisco
In high school I was average. That is all.
People talked to me and liked me.
And in college, life got hard.
It was like my mother’s brownies.
She always tried so hard.
I started standing on stages and preaching that life is so much more precious than we often think.
There is hope for us all and we just have to believe.
I was selling a message that I wasn’t even practicing,
Call me the Tiger Woods of morality.
Some day I’ll drink my Red punch and move on in this world. But it’s the same routine for now
Eat sleep repeat eat sleep repeat
Repeat, repeat, repent, repeat

Some day

Some day I will write something so spectacular that I will retire off of it.

I'll place my pen down, close my laptop and sleep it off.

And in my dreams I'll imagine how great this thing is.

Children will dance and cancer will be cured.

I'll make thousands of dollars a month off of royalties

because everyone will be quoting my piece.

It will be recited to death dealers and they will lay down their arms.

Some day I will fix the broken hinges on the doorways into other worlds.

No longer will Africa be over there or their oil over here.

Lovers will read my thoughts at their wedding day.

and the blown apart homes will disappear like a frost in the summer.

Some day I will write something so amazing that one person who reads it will die.

With a smile on their face they will be resurrected in some physical state.

Roses will grown in a barren wasteland,

Rain will fall from an arid sky,

I will lay my hands down and sleep it off.

Some day I write something so fantastic that I will forget that some dreams aren't worth following.

I like this a lot.

The first God I remember was a Santa Claus God,
who you only turn to around
Christmas time, who you tried to butter up,
and you got mad at if you didn't get what you wanted.

That didn't make sense.

I knew if there was a God, he could see through us,
like we were made out of cellophane, like he could stare directly into our hearts,
the way we look into an aquarium,
like he'd know what was floating around in there,
like he were the one feeding it.

Then there were those people who used god to threaten you,
saying "you'd better be careful- God's watching,"
like God was some badass hillbilly sitting on some cloud,
with some binoculars, a cotton candy beard and a shotgun.

Then there were those people who had God's name on a bumper sticker,
like he was running for president.
And sometimes those people would cut you off on the freeway and give you the finger,
which is very different than lending a hand.

Then there were people on television,
dressed in weird clothes and scary make-up,
SWEARING that they had the secret to God,
like god was a keyhole their eye was pressed to it,
and if I gave him some money they'd let me look,
and I could see God just hangin' around in his boxers,
and though I liked the idea of spying on God,
I began to wonder if the world would be a better place if the Romans had just put up
with Jesus and let him die of old age...

And then there were the football players,
kneeling down in front of everybody, thanking God,
like he was their best friend,
but then they'd jump up and spike the ball yelling, "I'm number ONE!!",
and that confused me,
for if you're number one,
then what number is God??

Then I saw politicians trotting God out on a leash,
like a racehorse they wanted to hop on and ride to the finish-line.
But if they lost, it would be GOD's fault,
and God would be the donkey they'd pin their problems on,
and that was very nice of God,
to be both a racehorse
and a donkey.

And then there were those who said,
"You'd better be good on earth, if you wanna get into heaven,"
Like heaven was the United States, and the Earth was Mexico,
and angels were the Border Patrol.
Like when you die,
you sit in a parked car on the outskirts of Heaven, the engine idling,
your soul in the back-seat in one of those kennels used to carry small dogs on an airplane,
as you listen to the radio,
hearing the voices of all the people you ever wronged testify against you.

And then there's the church which was like this cafeteria,
where they serve God to you on these very un-Godlike plates,
but I wanted my God PURE, not watered down by humans.
So I had one of those catastrophe gods- you know, the one you called in an emergency,
like God was the National Guard you call on to clean up the earthquake of your life.

So I got drunk one night,
drove home, passed out behind the wheel,
and woke up, going 60mph straight at a brick wall.
I slammed on the brakes, my heart banging like a wrecking-ball in my chest,
staring at death's face,
close enough to see that we had the same cheek-bones.

Now I have a God who's like a mechanic who can fix anything.
So, when I wanna chew somebody's head off like a salt-water taffy,
or amputate my DNA, or open my wrists like windows that have been painted shut,
I just put my soul into a box, like a busted computer, and haul it in.
And He never asks to see my paperwork,
or says that my warrenty has expired.
And I walk out feeling better.

And I don't care if He doesn't exist.

-Jeffrey McDaniel

Gravity

There was a warm crash--cold thud.

It sent a chill

up the spines of 23 viewers.

There was a car accident.

One vehicle was man and

the other cement.

We had a culprit.

His name was gravity.

He claimed that we couldn't

prove it was his fault.

Staple.

I once was lost, but then I opened my eyes.

I was blind, and I found no other way.

Sometimes love knocks you out.

Smother.

"All mistakes can be marked by borders"

Let us frolic into open territory.

We will laugh as lovely little angels choke out our dreams.

With eyes to hear and ears to see,

loneliness shall be called victory.