Slef

Stripped of self
The connection to others
Is touched by god.

David eats old hamburgers the day after,
Still drunk and happy,
He looks to me and says,
“All I can taste is cold with pickles.”

Tommy lives to skate and fight
And live he does,
In a bruised and battered
Blur of every night.

Kirk barbecues at 4 a.m. in dark.
He eats nothing but chicken.
He cranks the sound and self to twelve
And dances alone with his cats.

Michael works the nights at a hospital,
Both nurse and addict
He tells the ill the pain will stop,
But it won’t.

And stripped of self
The connection to others
Is touched by god.