don’t sit quietly /
fidget and force the chair over the riverbank /
unnumb the fingers from lone-syllable gravity /
prepare to draw a claw down the landscaped back /
everyone is another one leaning forward /
like an eager toothpick /
stay sick so the sidewalk crowds see the back of the mouth always /
don’t trust those who shine cutlery /
few need a blade more brilliant than them /
collect obituaries as literature /
not a novel, not a short story, not a play /
a ghostly surgeon’s warning /
best not to have been born /
before the species tripped over the horizon
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