couch shaped like a uvula
with gag-reflex intact.
black-bricked green mocks
cheetah print upholstery like
gap-tooth lips and swallow
you whole, pulling you into
a world of mouse crumbs
and lost change.
-
you always grew angry at
the passive-aggression i'd
sling around you like a lasso,
but you had the spine [and
fists and raw knuckles] to
make something of it.
-
there are too many trees falling
in the forest with no one to hear
them, with no one to catch them
in their whole lonely-but-not-alone
herd.
-
tonsil hockey is pointless because
no one ever wins, do they?
-
cheetahs aren't drawn in clumped
plush fabric. they aren't green with
black spots or black with green spots
or flesh-toned with blue-black spots,
but i am no cheetah. cheetahs don't
wear dog-vomit stains or mouse-bone
necklaces or coins between their lips.

in fact, i am willing to state that if
you are ever so close as to see the
inside of a cheetah's mouth, you
will soon be eaten and will then
take a tour of its digestive tract.