If a Tree Falls in the Forced in Two Parts: A Stuck Inside Poem, Day 21

1.

What’s the opposite of a refugee?

Not forced to flee. 

Forest to stay at home

to look within and count trees.

Everybody copes in their own way

with our own sway. Some of us pretend

to be leaves and get blown away.

Some of us beat our hearts at their own game.

It’ll be a cold vein in Hell Yeah

before you climb out of that scroll hole.  

You’re gonna pull that hammer until the slot machine

stops spinning and if it never does,

what a gift?  What a buzz. 

Go.  Mark you territory to your heart’s content. 

I’m trying to watch the sunset on the levee.

It’s heavy for everybody, but by all means

bark at the darkness until you are forced in.

Until you are forest, friend.

2.

What’s a mantra you can’t stop saying

even though you know it’s not

good for you?  I’ll start.

Mine is, “I wouldn’t want to be a part

of any club that would have me.

My kink is not asking for help when I need it.

Every crime is a crime of opportunity

if you think about it.  I just threw a tire

that wasn’t mine into dumpster

that wasn’t mine and what is ownership anyway?

I was told slow and steady wins the race,

but I don’t take sex advice from animals

who never leave their homes.

What does a turtle know about purple explosions?