last words in Brooklyn

I

Admire my patience
in the grave in Sunset Park.

And then the drug takes hold
And goes down into your arms and your fingers.
Wipes the pain along in front of it, washes

He asks me to make his ass tight, to give
him more and thicker hair. When he seeks himself
in what gets written, it's to learn

Impossible to stand. Or to sit.
Impossible to sleep.
So I squatted in the cage, my knees trembling.

For what is there to say
that hasn’t been said before with more,
or less, or approximate skill?

I am prowling, my feet are damp.
I am snatching at things to save my life.

My anger is such that the very ice-fields would melt,
if I had the power.
If I had the power.

The skin is the largest organ in the body. The skin of an average-
sized man has an area of approximately seventeen square feet and
weighs about five pounds. —medical handbook

First you run! Fly!
Turn yourself inside out.
Another time you escape.

Though you learned the dance routines they made you learn
    and you were 1996 Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl