fuck love

and distance
and possibility
and stupid hope

it sits
like a vulture on the brain
picking out 
the good parts

that feeling
in the chest
that there are 2 hearts in there
fighting
      
it crowds out
everything else
takes the place
of the usual hungers
only liquids will 
go down
      
in time
it mutates
into a dark thing
unreachable
      
there are no surgeons
for this
the doctors don't know
where to cut
      
and you pretend
to continue
down a much 
narrower road

as if there were a place
if you could get there
that would be
home
      
      

© 1999 by
michael mcneilley