Daniel Bailey

tonight I mean to dig out the streets of me
to walk all over the dead leaves inside and crunch
them into smaller dead leaves until the deadness
and the leaves themselves are not known to me

I will watch them all blow away

I don’t understand the waves in the radio
I don’t understand the falling asleep
or the waking up or you
I really don’t understand math

one time we walked into a cave and just exploded there
all our guts covering the walls of the cave
we looked at the walls. we were bodiless and immense
you said, we are the jackson pollock of cave painting
I didn’t know what you meant. this was before college
it takes a while for some things to sink in

our guts dried on the cave walls
our bones became the dirt
being alive makes me really happy

my head is muddy
you sad, long fire
I sat inside you
and baked into something hard

what is outside a cave?
what if we could reach inside and play our organs like church organs?
that is a hymn I want to hear

I want to call you, long-distance, and sing gibberish
bloody is only bloody if you believe it

thesis: bloody movies are popular because it’s inspiring all that blood
that blood says, we are really alive and living!
look what moves us!

I don’t believe I have ever slept
has anyone seen me sleep?
I need a witness, I don’t believe

we should crawl into each other’s bodies and never come out except to breathe
make oceans of each other, little lakes or ponds, long, slow-moving rivers
wade through each other like trash

fucking without bodies
is something I’d like to try

here is my body: take it

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