Older Poems
by Mike Monroe
Phoenix


I.

once a night around dusk i stretch my arms out to the horizons
in search of excitement to fill my hourglasses with
and in search of butterflies i know i won�t be able to keep

and usually i swing my butterfly net at empty air
where illusions once had caught my fancy
but when i try to catch them they fade into angry faces
and my sorrows drown me in bitter whiskey

i begin to die slowly
like a tree casually losing its leaves in the fall breeze
until i wake up lonely in a forgetful daze
and violently vomit the previous night�s amnesia away like
no simile needed here but the one already in your head

as the day goes on the scene spins into rewind
and the leaves slowly float back up to their branches
hen around dusk the mighty phoenix explodes from the tree
and spreads its wings out to the horizons


II.

once every few years a balloon blows up in my belly
and each step i take an invisible man punches me in the stomach
and i shit blood and my body slowly deflates
as my intestines inflate with swollen red anger

i end up a lonely skeleton in a hospital bed
filling my time with ancient words and brand new moving pictures
as my veins are filled with an endless sea of drugs
and i�m pin cushioned repeatedly with hungry sterile needles
that i watch fill slowly with thick red blood

the nights and days pass like cars on a quiet country road
for time has become a vast arid desert
whose only variety is an occasional sandstorm

then my body begins to inflate again
and my face puffs out like the man in the moon
and my belly rounds out like a crab soccer ball
and my intestines slowly cease to shout their pains to my scattered brain
and i dream of the mighty phoenix

soon the world welcomes me back into its sometimes loving arms
there is no feeling like the chill of winter
after weeks of stale hospital air
and i wait out the days at home
until i�m ready to continue with the adventure of my life

(Continued)

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