I'd rather take a lethal injection than get murdered
on the street.
I got nothing against chemistry.
I'd like to walk down to a special room,
the guards all silent and respectful of
my dying,
everyone wondrous like at a museum,
hooked up to a radio tour.
I can't wait to be pulled from the earth like a tooth
from the gums of what is usual.
There are tranquilizers in the needle.
It is an easy game.
I can do the Valium shuffle,
two step into death.
I don't even need my psychiatrist.
Going to sleep in a pile of nooses
but never getting hung.
Making the front page of all the papers.
Not a victim, just a star shining over
the broken skulls of the dead,
my friends, my victims,
their bony biographies.

Poseur    

It doesn't matter that your conversation means
less than chestnuts
on ashes
or a pocketful of nickels
at a snack
stand.
I didn't mean the interview was over
before it began
and that the debate failed
before the first word
lied.
It is all dismissible in its wavering.
Ask the photo
where it has taken its picture from
and you will find
the margin
has receded into the sky.