No one has heard of my neighborhood.
Through the rainbow of degrees
are clouds of sixty below or 120 degrees.

Poison ivy through the box hedges.
And the pines.

If anyone dies tonight, they theater.

I don't believe in knowing anything.

I hung black sheets instead of curtains.

I hung black sheets on the couch when I was bleeding.

I was always bleeding. Or ice cream curdled in my stomach.

Or all my friends overdosed. Or they found her

in the woods behind the CoGo's.

Or they found her in her car.

I thought she was drinking apple juice at first.

At visitation her son shot us all with a toy gun
and fell off a hoverboard.

Do you have a menthol though.

Do you know what everyone likes

(Lamictal)

(Narcan)

(light purple)

(pit bulls)

(leopard print)

(Dip Brow)

(Sugar Free Rockstar Energy Drink)

(fumes)

Everyone is new here. Is their first week here.
Is so happy to be here.

In my neighborhood no one has heard of

call the billboard guy if you want new seats in the Chrysler

We have fidget spinners no returns.

And the siren goes off at 9:41 each night

in the cold of May October golden winter

there was something else I forgot

like remember wanting to live inside a song

and we wouldn't let anyone in the apartment unless they were high

Actually I didn't like your stories that much.
Actually I didn't like the palm heart you got me.
It was a relief to throw it away.

And also I still think every motorcycle
is your motorcycle
for a second

(fumes)

I guess you liked art.

My neighborhood

I guess someone around here is a bitch

Someone is calling her a bitch

If you didn't know this you'd be blind
in the bottom of the water

She said nobody loved her brother until he was dead.

Nobody called her parents for days
and nobody knows what happened
and nobody will say

Nothing is personal to me except
I don't like a thing to be lonely

Remember how you shot up a stinkbug
with your last needle

in front of your dad

You were so tall in the casino

Your friend had to turn his shirt inside out
because it had offended the security guard before

and you made me leave all my knives in the car

won't it go down to nothing

a little memorial fire

In my neighborhood they keep a blue Mustang
with a bow on the roof

in front of the Eat'n Park it says “WIN ME”

and when I walk by I think

don't tell me what to do
don't tell me what to do

It's supposed to be beautiful
when people think they can't die

(don't tell me what to do)

(Clairol Shimmer Lights)

(lighter leash)

(bleach)

(alien piss)

but mostly it just makes them selfish

I bought my first leather jacket in Castle Shannon

You can tell it's true because it glows when I say it

Some parts of Pittsburgh are just vines
I have money forever
in my mind

That dog is talking about something tragic
on the other side of the hill.

Maybe it's just moonlight
sixty degrees

There were times I worried so much
I couldn't do

but the first firefly
my nails are getting long

I take vitamins and buy power tools
and go to parties by myself

it's the one thing I'm not afraid of

Sometimes I put the amethyst in my water
before I drink it

because I miss medicine

I miss the way it would let you ask
your body a question

which you could not ask any other way

Are you OK

Is it better here

Is that why dives look like stars to me

Still sometimes is that how other people

have fun and


I know I'm not supposed to kill myself
but I can't always remember why


Basically in my neighborhood everyone
is everyone's girlfriend

People keep saying the bowling alley
is open sometimes

You can watch a deer walk down the street
while you're paying for your pizza

Something bad keeps happening in the strip mall


something bad keeps happening at the Slovakian club


and who stole the birdseed from my backyard



White people ask me if the wiggly is still open

What the hell is the wiggly? I ask them

It's across the street from the bowling alley

Oh of course I say

But I'm lying



We slept through her funeral

We had our own funeral

I hear people threw flowers in the river

from the Roberto Clemente Bridge



I guess that's one way to do it.

I can't tell if they're fireworks.

I liked that there was nothing in your bathroom
except a pump bottle of pineapple soap

and I liked how you spray-painted the blinds
with crosses and DNR DNR DNR


because I guess that's one way to do it

(don't tell me what to do)

(Gucci Mane)

(Red Bull)

(Black Sabbath)

(Skynet)

They aren't freworks


You know what

It only lasted a month

You said LSD set you free
which made me sad

You had a picture of yourself in a purple dress shirt

you were young

and you looked like the kind of guy
who would sweat while selling me a router



It was your birthday yesterday

It seemed like you meant it for a minute

The last time I saw your best friend he said you
wouldn't talk on the phone

I hear you're dealing again

I bet you'll die in Ybor City

I walked by your old apartment yesterday
and I still have the blinking LCD key chain
I bought when you got your friend to fix my brakes

(All-Star!)

(All-Star!)

and it was a year ago



I want to be so much more free than I am

And I am pretty free

(Swedish ivy)

(Paul McCartney)

(memento mori)

(the wiggly)


My neighborhood

80 degrees

Looks like LA at night
except it's the mall across the river

I'm a fool

I get my nails done at the beach
and smoke pink Fantasias

Coco bought me a hanging plant

We put it in my car, got popsicles
and walked through the cemetery



Are you OK
Will you come back before you die

Won't it go down to nothing

Are you OK

Is a better place to go

Immerse the heart cause it seems like a star

But sometimes they do the other

Joke


We slept at his funeral

We our own burial

I hear people throwing flowers into the water

Roberto Clemente Bridge