Pain Scale for Fossils (Re-Write #1)

The first thing nurses always ask-
is: Are you in any pain today?

And I say "Yes. The answer is always 'Yes'
That's how it is Chronic Pain. It's chronic.
Related to Time, as in, All. Of. The. But,
how could you know even though that fact
cleverly hidden in the medical history page 
in your computer that has my name on it.

Can you give the pain a number from one to ten?

So I say "Twelve. Or Twenty. Or Eleventy-five.
Because her numbers are not the same
as my numbers, so please- if this will save time
I am going to write this down...

Pain Level One: This is both of us waking to feel this way,
but, what you would call "a sick day" I call "Good morning."

Pain Level Two: Good morning, it is going to rain.

I know this, because pain is its own forecast. Pain births
itself, like a mythology, like a place that keeps discovering you.
My doctor and I examine charts, discuss excavations.
I know my body is a ruined temple,
because my doctor only speaks in lost languages.

Level Three: Good Morning, it is going to rain fire.

Level Four: I am starting to lose my shape from the rain...
Pain... whatever. It just hurts.

Level Five: This is the unsure place, the Rubicon 
somewhere in every day. The tipping-point between
Do I return to bed? Or keep walking in the rain?

Pain Level Six: It is raining. It is always raining, or going to,
or threatening. My to-do lists are written on rice paper.

Level Seven: Fifteen years ago, this pain kept me 
In bed, eighteen hours a day. Today my body is heavy
with coping strategies. The pain settles, 
like fossils, like silt and epochs. Someday, 
Level Seven will be my favorite Lost World.

Level Eight: Good Morning, it is raining crazy Tyrannosaurs.

Level Nine: Rain as Soothsayer, as Oracle, as Doom Prophesy,
Rain as Today and Every Day for Fifteen Years. My pain?
My pain today is a Fifteen and will never fit anyone's scale.

Level Ten: End game. Extinction event. Rain forever.

Predictive Text Poem #3

Consequently, I have to go
to the store and get some rest
of the day and feel better
soon  and that is why I'm asking
for a friend to talk to you okay
I will be there despite the fact
that I have to go to the store
for you to be okay in the video

Predictive Text Haiku

don't know if you are
interested in the sad
morning. i will be

Predictive Text Poem #2

I will be there in a few minutes and I will be there in a few minutes to talk to you about it when I get home I will send you the link to the video of the guy who was the guy who was the guy who was the guy who was the guy

Grief

We are built for loss, we humans. Memory
is what God gave to people when He was
not in a giving mood. The loss of innocence
was a bite of real fruit. We can't be hungry
without it being a sin. Loss of the womb
is called birth. Loss of imagination is called
grow up, will you? Loss of the ability to fly
at will is called the child accepts what is real;
is called what are you going to do with the rest
of your life, for real? Loss of being a nomad
is called real estate. Loss of people is a fact
of real life, accept it, kid. We get it. Every loss
is real. Every loss is real. Every loss is real.

Teaching Old Men New Kicks

When you are older and disabled
learning martial arts is a delicate
balance
between getting your body
in shape and not destroying it
in the process

the teacher says ideally, this
kick he is showing us should land
upside my opponent's head. I smile
at his optimism. My hips don't.

I try anyways & maybe that
is the whole point. to keep trying,
stay in motion, but don't mistake
the map for the territory (translated:
a picture of something is not
the thing
itself     or; a map is no good if you stare at it
so hard that you walk off a cliff

so, I respect the map of the kick
the instructor asks of me
but do not confuse it with the territory
that is my hips. I try
and keep my balance while
I try
to aim
every punch, every kick
at a map
of my opponent's head
but will settle for the territory
of their kneecap.

Come/Go - a haiku

I always dreamt
"death by orgasm" then thought
"oh... the survivor..."