Because by Stephen Cramer

Posted on May 21, 2019 by Bob McCranie

Because I’m a skeleton
wearing a few inches

of flesh & some jeans
I’m going to rub my face

on some wild columbine
& learn how to live

on rocky slopes, sing
all the neighbors’ stares

into my direction, suck
on this rice like it’s a 5

star meal & it is, convert
my feelings into the brass angles

of jazz & then translate them
into words which are less

than the croaks of frogs
& the sadness of white

throated sparrows, make an igloo
of leaves in the fall

the wind be damned,
dance to pop songs about

having sex with money,
scratch my name into a stone

& toss it into the deepest waters
so that it can be rubbed

by an eel, look everyone
in the eye who has been broken

in so many different ways
than me, hydroplane

as often as possible, keep on
not breaking someone’s jaw,

put three times
the wrong key in the hole,

be there when the thirsty
river opens its throat.