Obsession Gets on One Knee

Everything is dead. Doesn’t everybody see

how the day skulls its dying? The sound of rain peeling

back the sidewalk. I sulk about everything.

My dead dog. The dead deer flashed open on the highway.

A car drips in its passing: every single day every time I pray I’ll be missing you

Sometimes a tree broken for my misery. Deserted.

A fly hurls itself against my window, each

thumpthumpthumpa heart unraveling.

Nothing…I am selfish. The birds outside molt for me.

The flowers study new skin. In the mirror, my mouth lurks

behind the dead mouth. Every mouth the same strand.

I give the room its thunder. The fly drops dead.