they give us
no right way to do it
the failure is complete
the moment we’re squeezed out
from between our mother’s thighs
then it is
god and government
country and flag
parents and teachers and bosses
days that are subservient
and insubstantial
we can blunt ourselves with alcohol
we can blunt ourselves with drugs
we can blunt ourselves
with love and anger
tv shows and the movies
but nothing ever really
does the trick
they give us
no right way to do it
but they expect us
to have all of their answers
in the flick of a wrist
in the blink of an eye
as we crawl away from them
nodding our dull compliance
our wills breaking
our fingers bleeding
our nails covered in mud
no safe space
left on earth
like the one we had
in that swirling beautiful void
before the dark madness
of conception
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John Grochalski is the author of the poetry collections, The Noose Doesn’t Get Any Looser After You Punch Out (Six Gallery Press 2008), Glass City (Low Ghost Press, 2010), In The Year of Everything Dying (Camel Saloon, 2012), Starting with the Last Name Grochalski (Coleridge Street Books, 2014), and The Philosopher’s Ship (Alien Buddha Press, 2018). He is also the author of the novels, The Librarian (Six Gallery Press 2013), and Wine Clerk (Six Gallery Press 2016). Grochalski currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where the garbage can smell like roses if you wish on it hard enough.
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