Plan the future            A presence unknown

                                        Derivative is the way I hit snooze
for an hour on my alarm each morning

rediscover and marvel at
                       my one grey chest hair

When I don't know how to respond
                      to people
I don't respond

                      This causes obvious problems

Never do I wear
           my sunglasses inside               The (false) modesty

problem forbids me                 My low fat quesadilla
                                                     is especially greasy

The sky sweeps up                   the sky                                   

                                  Brilliance radiates
                                                 from the sun

A crop duster swoops down,
                       tips its wings side to side
                       as if to say, hi              One day  
                                                              we will all be dead.

I feel best        when I write best

There are many ways I could grow
                       my facial hair, but all I do is shave.

                                              Right now I have no idea how to feel

We want to believe that without love we'd disappear, that if we have love, give love and know love, we are truly alive and if there is no love, there would be no life. But the terror is that without love, life goes on. We go on.

                              The soft bullet in       
                                         No mercy       
                                         killing

Your nail polish is the pinkest                        of bubble gum                        

                               A ringing endorsement

                               My sunglasses are covered in red

                               smiley faces

From You're Gonna Miss Me When You're Bored (Barrelhouse Books, 2014) by Justin Marks. Copyright © 2014 by Justin Marks. Used with permission of the author.