From the upcoming Train of Thought 2: Almost Home

 

She just got on the train.
She just left my brain.
She walks towards me.
She walks away from me.
She sings songs in a different city.
Under smoky lights, and I’m alone
and don’t feel right.
She strips for a living.
I stare at a book with stupid drawings.
Man, I wish I was Henry Rollins.
Maybe Leonard Cohen,
maybe.
Maybe I wish I was smoking, reef smoke
in the ocean.
I wish I existed on your list, but
I only exist on mine.

I’m dead.

I wish the sky would light up with fireworks,
I wish I was a constellation and celestially speaking,
give me a reason to keep on breathing.

Seeing demons in my dream, speaking in my ears
Wasting away with fears. Downing beers, drinking tears
like the salt of the sea.

I am only alive on paper.
Once the pen ink dries out…I die.

 

Jason Wright is the editor and founder of Oddball Magazine. His column appears weekly. His new book is Train of Thought.