Warm Life

for Bill Berkson & Khaled al-Assad the union president’s dead & they won’t let transgender people pee in north carolina & here i’m complaining about climbing the mountain again the mountain’ll always remain if i’m lucky, to keep me from sucking & only a king mule will do. humbled by bill as he goes through the business of staying alive with dignified unconcern. i don’t deserve him, have no zen no dasein, just half-a-dozen self -inflicted wounds i’m expected to grin & bear & like robert plant, i do. it’s like i’m in a rembrandt or something holding testtubes to the sun to read my urine specimens & —spoiler alert—i’m trigger sad checked my email mid-poem so of course its bad news the ancient city is practically gone, palmyra, palmyra at least i still have bill here in isis usa