Domestic Defense

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Conversations

of how to defend

front porches

with strategic

grenade patterns

continue after

the frizzy haired

gypsy, limp

hand-rolled

cigarette hanging

from her blue lips,

fails to convince

that the medicinal

herbs she has piled

on a wicker platter will

ever cure what ails me.

Real life is lived

in the chemically recycled

details; toasted carcinogens,

meat flavored nitrates, artificial cherry

cough syrups full of red dye #4, handfuls

of over the counter muscle relaxers, &

plastic Batman cups full of liquor

& carbonated high fructose corn syrup.

Even those defective childproof caps

serve the important purpose of making

one feel better.

Life, my herbal bag

holding friends, should be lived

like an unpinned grenade

near the porch swing.

We exist as a squib —

one sizzle,

a flash of teeth,

then you’re out.