Coco

White Rabbit

It’s 

been 

a 

long 

way 

down 

this rabbit hole 

I’ve chased you into 

If only I had heeded 

the warnings 

The muddy excuses,

all the broken branch truths – 

tearing my dress of trust 

before going through the looking glass

cut by mirror shards of unfaithfulness 

Before I took the leap

into this dank hole 

I so hastily followed you into 

Before I took the fall

of disillusioned desire

Before I took the journey 

into your wonderland

Truly risked it all…

and for what…

covered in cobwebbed longing 

Hart Island

They keep laying body’s down 

One on top of the other 

like a layered cake 

nothing except dirt between them 

It’s called Hart Island 

The land of unknown souls 

Unclaimed body’s from the overfilling morgues

This plague, this virus, this morphing disease…

Its claiming countless lives day after day 

Body’s falling down on the streets

Collapsing faster than dominos 

No one to catch them afraid of contraction 

Collected like unwanted trash alongside highways

Toxic waste that belongs in a landfill 

Triple gloved, Hazmat suited hands heave them –

Into their final “resting place” with no one to mourn

It’s called it Hart Island 

The land of unknown souls 

I often wonder why they call it that

Did they purposefully remove the E for empathy?

How many people actually cried for them?

Did someone pray the Rosary?

Was there a group that Danced for the Dead?

Were flowers or lanterns sent out to sea?

This is where we ship the unwanted

It made no difference that they were sons and daughters

No efforts made to try and discover their stories 

Time is to precious a gift to waste on vagrants 

It’s called Hart Island 

The land of unknown souls 

Resurrected in the 19th Century 

A tribute to AID’s victims undesirables 

What a comforting thought to the privileged 

Their cemeteries are clean 

One can never be too safe from egregious bones

Maybe that’s why they removed the E…

“Smiles are clear in coalition with the

Now — I forget how to be

Anything but — here”

– Joshua Corwin

Listening to you;

­⸺

wow that last line

really hits home...

 

Hurts a little,

like microscopic

shards of glass dust

in my feet.

 

I tumble and fall

each time I try

to walk your

straight-line poetics.

 

Quicksand emotions

pull me closer

to the center of

my darkness.

 

In this upside-down where,

stranger things are

normal screams of

agony I carry in my smile

 

Yes means no,

and no means go;

but where can I go to

escape my love for you?

I

place it

on top of

my pain,

my ever growing

Eiffel towered grief.

 

My sturdy,

dependable heartache –  

where no matter which path –  

I choose to take…

           

 

none of them,

lead me,

to

you.