Hips at 126.8 pounds, 23 in L.A.

Some days
To me
My face looks like
A rubber mask
And some days also
Dried with sandpaper
With war wounds from battles fought and lost
And I see words and events carved in there along the edges

In the bleakest of times
I think
You smile too much

And in the best
I think it is a dream somewhere between good and bad
So smile anyways

I can see my bones there beneath my skin
Iron mountains in a landscape of soft soil
Dense liquid shapes
Just fragile enough to
Fear

In the hardest of times
I can hear them snapping inward
From too much pressure
Misaligned in a body out of shape
In a body pushing too hard on itself

And in the best
I press down and rise up
One big graceful lever
Dancing called walking
My hands folding around the hardest edges of the softest body
Handles to hold on to.

My bones reaching up
(even in their liquid state)
To give me (this me, the rest of me, not just the bones of me) something to hold on to

showers in l.a. rentals

The faucet in the upstairs bathroom won’t stop leaking
Even after the plumber got here to fix it 2 months after I moved my boxes in
And had to rip out the wall to get to the rusted busted pipes
Patching it all back with the not quite right white paint

It behaved for a while
On and off well mannered like it should be
Its new knobs basking in new knob vanity
How shiny how new how lovely are we!
A chorus in the shower
On January mornings when that window on the broken track let in just enough of a chill
To frost the surface of my steaming just awoken skin

But last week
It started up again

Just a drizzle at the moment
But I see the rushing gushing coming in time to come
In days and weeks and months and call the plumber I called him we really must call the plumber I really did call he will come tomorrow next Monday over the weekend I forgot to leave the key
And forgot to take the trash out
The landlord doesn’t care

This city is supposed to be hot
It is supposed to burn
And I am facing freezing air
And vain flooding faucets
Who never knew about a drought