8/29/19 1125PM
the last days of summer are always like
beef jerky
tougher than your old, wrinkled leather moccasins
hotter than your tires screeching as you daze off in traffic
i find myself sitting with smoke in my eye
dying to find out my end
whether it’s around that copse of skeletal pines
or simply bubbling up inside
so you mount a pumping well
all shifting and grinding machinery
pulling that beef jerky out of your feet
it’s salt
all sodium, little bit of protein
but mostly salt
and the salinity leaks into my heart
which has been so wishy washy
that it explodes like lithium
maybe if you eat enough beef jerky
you’ll grow a new heart
made of leather