like this poem, like our beta fish waiting
at the fault line of water and death, to be fed
like the house flea on our blood, like an anemic
epiphany, remember,
like poets do, like prosody does,
like a litany appearing on a page, like a gospel
listen, remember
like a red herring, like this is or is not
and as far as I can tell it was always there
or it never was, promethean amnesia,
like the Gods keep forgetting
to give us life, like America of lull, like the edge
of creation, like marriage, like children,
like poison, like picking
to be read like an apple,
it is, remember,
like spider against peppermint oil, like rose-bush
against vinegar, bee against sugar,
like cicatrix of initials carved into bark,
like Spring, remember,
like what happened to the lyric, like a voice-
box inside of a wind-pipe multisyllabic
and metaphoric, like the symbolism
of money, like America incendiary,
like watching the church channel, like how we look
like different people sleeping, like parts
of I are you, remember,
like I love you, like repetition,
like a heart, like the last vestige of oxygen
where matter dissolves,
like what comes out of our mouths, like the eerie hum
of being human, like vomit,
like a smoke signal, like rising pavement,
like a white flag, like
waving, like St. Christopher’s wings,
like cancer spreading, like counting down time,
like ten, like nine, like eight, like seven,
like delirious minutes, like a spiritual concave,
like wetness, like drooling,
like never speaking, splitting like a noun,
like how you shall return,
remember, it is not what it is,
like what I came here to do,
like to starve decay