Kristen de Kline #107 all in one short week

all in one short week
shit     happens  

down in Lawless they say never show your     hand
keep your cards close to your     heart
fold or make them     fold
throw me a poker     smile
told you I've got a white dove up my sleeve    poker face
surprises      don't you just love 'em

I'm tearing the wings off of angels
they don't flinch   not once
I'm shaking the earth
trust no one
I'm shaking the sky
trust only your heart

I can't keep up with the angels
all I'm left with are     wings
bottle-tops
fag butts

there are many ways this can     play
out    a lone hitch-hiker
maps poems Lonely Planet guides
a body in a ditch
a man whose name begins with M vanishes
off the face of the    earth
I can't keep up with the bodies     disappearing
here      disappearing there
I can't keep up

we try to sleep in the back of the Valiant
something pokes into my spine
a wire spring coils its way from out of the fabric covers
I shake the earth to see what I can find:
an empty cider can crumpled McDonald's wrappers a fifty cent coin
there are many ways the dreams can     taunt
hitchhikers bodies dismembered limbs charcoal faces
where do they     belong

you shake the skies
we try to sleep
tear another wing off an angel
listen to a whimpering cry
you shake the earth

we try to sleep in the back of the Valiant
unwrap a checkered picnic rug for a blanket
listen to Hotel California on an old ghetto blaster
lie outside in the gutter on the edge of the allotment
look up at the stars
write another poem
tear off another    wing
is that whimpering I can make     out

all in one short week
shit     happens