What We Know

We know that fleas jump
and dogs bite-
I have known some men who cheat and
many women who lie...
I listen and learn and
not keep score in the corner, but to study
how to
strip a hater's traits
like a boy plucks a flies fly-

Don't ask me
I don't know why
I have to get out what's inside
this ain't what's going on inside your mind
this is mine and I've decided to share it


Is not yours like mine?
Then, fine, let there be no tie
Separate all you want love from grace
Good on you if you can, not really my thing-

I mow the lawn,
I collect the clippings.
My grandfather's barn
not beneath me around me
swirling like molasses
on a stick-
(if you listen closely you may make out the
panthers in the mix)
I do not fear the size or quickness of any man's fist.

By now you'd think I'd done enough thinking
about chain link fences tipped with sharp reminders
of my own tendency towards enemy nature

Maybe that's where we get the nerve to get that
paranoid feeling
when we are stripped of routine.
Ladybugs don't stop to swerve and re-consider
like the drunk at a crosswalk
unsure of any real reason to go.
Horses don't run into trees.