lept in boiling lake

all that glitters is - up for grabs

and drowning us

all that's true is - up for debate

and eluding us

midas on the tire swing

midas on the 'gram

styrofoam scepter - grasped by cancer

jump, pussy jump

the followed follows

reality cleaves

the splash is posed

like a question

asked faultily, unanswered rightly

how will we ever get out

the cost rises in plumes

untotalled, mingling with acid

death and gifts lain out by hands that have never another shook

the drowning meets the drowned on the way home

---

outside the sphere of influence

and the diamond of violence

i gurgle, braindead.

a man in power authorizes

a windfall of fire

a man in power sleeps

in the manner i sleep

alike, both wide-eyed with

terror, in plush linen