poem // originally posted on Instagram, Nov. 8 2022, as part of a prompt series provided for subscribers.
i thought about writing you
a nice poem
something about fluffy clouds
floating past the plane window
words i could wrap up neatly
with a smooth, velvet ribbon
but then i remembered
how i asked to take a nap
after crossing two seas
and seven time zones
spending my midnight
and mornings awake
on air-crates and buses
how i slept out on the ground
ran miles with the wind
went hungry when i couldn’t
start a fire with a flint
picked ticks off my skin
left my mind blank
stripped naked to change on the
goddamn riverbank
how i flew into the sun
by pouring casks of cash
and sinkfuls of sweat
into the coffins of a kingdom
so that i could come fuel
the zealots’ flame
with more of my meek and silent
matchstick self
and i was told a nap
would be ‘impolite’
to the host
—i could sleep
later
god forbid the burdens of the body
impose upon the estate of the ego
and that the needs of the servant
supplant the whims of the king
so this
is the poem