Talking to you
is like whispering 
with a whirlwind

Can’t get a word in
against what’s pouring
out of you

I don’t blame you
for your hurricane life
You are what you are
for reasons beyond you

I’d go fight your parents
if I wanted to make it right
but
I’m not
putting up with it
either

so
blow away
blow away
try to stay alive
until you can
come again another day

when you
can be still

Many times 
I’ve said before
that I was leaving
and then did not
but somehow
a key has turned
a lock has released
a door has opened
and I am
tumbling through it
into the Next
and it is not as
ugly in there
as I was built
to believe
so what else
is untrue?

New human emotion:
the satisfaction
of deleting 
unwanted names
from a list of contacts.

It’s not done the same way
as it was formerly,
there’s no tearing 
of pages from
an old address book,
not the same as burning
the book
or the envelopes
bearing the addresses,
letters, sentiments,
and the very spit
of the people
set to vanish — 

no.  

It’s the thrill
at our magical potency
in the moment
of vaporization.
We say:

at last,
here the dream of 
the Nuclear Age 
is fulfilled,
one annoying soul
at a time.