Who Needs a Poet?

nobody needs a poet
we are archaic
we are obsolete
we are malfunctioning cogs in the machinery
we are disturbing the status quo
we're pissing off our girlfriends' fathers
we're underperforming at our lackluster nine-to-fives
we aim low and we land lower
but we dream in a stellar capacity
and every now and then…
we find a reality in our hearts
that the world's been waiting angrily
to listen in on

Agoraphobia

Thought there might be a reason to leave this place

Not today 

Out there its dangerous and filled with emotion  

A black hole between your ears, a star explosion 

No not today 

This place is safe 

so I'll just stay 

You may never see me again 

Dreaming of a woman split in two 

1/2 of me 1/2 of you

She danced for dollars 

topless 

Some for her, most for you

All the pretty pieces of paper 

in little stacks in little boxes 

Someone came over and started asking questions 

I almost killed them 

Robot Love Song

Wake up

Lights on

Shapes I know 

the names of

My body reinforced

My mind a universe 

Can't turn it on or off

There's got to be a purpose for this artificial heart

I'm not sure that I have a soul

Everything I feel is moving 

Is it something you can touch 

It feels like screaming 

inside of me, rewires me

I am a truth 

I am indignant 

Why would they make me this way

They gave me everything ever

They gave me everything you have

They made me better 

I'm built for precision 

To think with such quickness 

But I can't get beyond this

crime against nature

This suffering heartache 

This crippled emotion

consumes logic and reason

These flaws serving no one

Why would they make me love? X4

A machine is just a machine 

That's all it ever wanted to be

A machine is just a machine 

Shouldn't have been made for other types of things

A machine is just a machine

Doesn't need more than what it needs

A machine is just a machine

That's all it ever wanted to be 

Elephants hate the circus
like Kurt Cobain hated fame
Elephants hate the circus
& the tigers aren't thrilled with it either

I'm outside the tent tonight
smoking a Camel & swigging Dimetapp
The show's about to start
& I'm signaled by the corpulent ring master
to kick on the spot lights
That hard buzzing snap that blasts the beams upon us

I'm out back with the clowns in the rain
holding a tarp over them
Bourbon & grease paint
I'm offered a bit of each

The bearded lady calls me to the trailers
for a dice game with the Daredevil & the geek
But I haven't been paid for last week
Sometimes I don't get paid for weeks on end
A felon can't complain

That's why the livestock pens are unlocked
The tigers are missing
& the elephants are just starting to rush the tent
I got six padlocks in my pocket
I roll the dice against the wet plywood
scoop the pot
Elephants hate the circus

-Joshua Fink

Get Going Gone

Come away with me
We'll pull up our stakes & rattle down the coastline
stop at all the greasy-spoon joints
pool our money for smokes and fun
We'll just keep going until we can't drive
anymore
I'll get some job washing dishes & making breakfast food
You can sit in the motel bed
paint your toenails
& sip rum until I get back
We'll break out the old tape deck
& play something older than us
dance in the broken light until we fall over drunk
Laughing & mad
& we'll make love in those borrowed sheets
& everything will be expendable
Paper cups and tiny soaps
& maybe while we're gone
the law will forget us
Our friends will forgive us
& some day we'll make our way home

-Joshua Fink

Any Day

Hear the song the finches sing
Hear the melodious church bells ring

Walk the concrete/Feel the cracks
Feel the warmth your spirit lacks

Hear the hustle of the street
Watch a first time couple meet

Grab a bench & watch the trains
Count the nights beneath the rain

Send a letter to yourself
Polish off your liquor shelf

Burn a message in your chest
Put on your best suit & vest

Put a record on a loop
Place your letter on the stoop

Choose a blade, some pills, or worse
Kiss goodbye your maddening curse

Say a prayer or have a smoke
Accept the promises you broke

Breath a sigh/Embrace the sorrow
Set the clock for more tomorrow

Little Rooms

I put myself in little rooms.

A room in a larger room. 

A trunk in the little room in the larger room.

My head is a room too. 

I thought I'd take more walks. 

But I stay in these little rooms inside rooms like Russian dolls. 

Today I woke up wondering why I stay in these rooms so often. 

I like everything outside of the rooms. 

It just becomes so hard to leave them.

Stepping out of these rooms is like jumping off a cliff into the ocean. 

And sometimes that's all I think about. 

September 20th, 2013, 3:46am PST

I cried

From the stoop

Outside, the harvest moon 

had fallen into fall and

it smelled like winter

And each lover

sat beside me

Fresh like the weather

an olfactory reminder 

Of each year 

These walls 

hold silent 

their ears

Keeping secrets 

beyond their means....

 

For James, with patience and strength

I don't want to do anything but miss you for a while.

There are a million coulda shoulda wouldas that might pass through these lips.

There are a million things I've forgotten and a million moments I'll never forget.

With you it was all or nothing.

In the beat of a heart. 

You were beauty and all it's flaws.

A million stars born, exploding, and collapsing into nothingness again. 

You were the shape of that heart. 

Beating ferociously. 

Lone man, part wolf. 

Standing, howling at the moon, simply for the breath that filled his lungs.... Silhouetted as the sun blazes and burns out behind him.