Killing Time, By Simon Armitage

Meanwhile, somewhere in the state of Colorado, armed to the teethwith thousands of flowers,two boys entered the front door of their own high schooland for almost four hoursgave floral tributes to fellow students and members of the staff,beginning with red rosesstrewn among unsuspecting pupils during their lunch hour,followed by posiesof peace lilies and wild orchids….

Life in Reverse

It would begin with a mortician
pulling us out of our coffins
and end with a doctor shoving us
feet first into our mother’s vaginas

Dear God of Nonexistent Things

You are the god that rules over unicorns, fairies, my literary career, and luck after all. How can I not believe in you?

America

America,
I have heard so much
about this “dream,”
why do you keep dreaming?
when will you wake up?

Dear God of Glitter.

Please rain down upon me in all of your sparkling majesty and glory, your brief, momentary flashes of the visible light spectrum, your shiny shining like sugar for my eyes. I pray you make everything fabulous…

Motivation Monday: How to Meditate for Success

To meditate, start by stopping. Open yourself into the expanse of the universe. How it rolls on into nothingness and the nothingness rolls on into further expanses. Understand the vastness. Become the vastness.

Dear God of 1984 Monte Carlos

We spoke in tongues. No one taught us sacrament so we invented our own. We ask thee in the name of thy son to bless and sanctify this spit. This sweat.

For Nick

You turned into light.
That’s the only explanation.
Your body turned into vibrations.
I can’t see you because
you are everywhere now.
As your body lets go
of every atom
you dance into our dark.

Dear God of Thrift Stores.

Dear God of Thrift Stores. Holy Handmedown Lord of the Secondhand. I come to you impoverished and ironic to sink my fingers into your junkbins and sift through your innards. I come to you to make wholes out of incompletes, newandimprove a brokedownbeatup, to stitch together echoes. I seek you on red tag days when…

Motivation Monday: How to Become a River

You are flowing endlessly from a glacier
into the ocean. There are a bunch of fish inside of you.
Now, envision men with fishing gear stomping through your stomach.
This feeling is familiar. Embrace it.