poem

 Pain Scale

What is your pain on a scale of one

To the square root of the Russian 

Word for twenty-three?

On the spectrum from frowny face

To slitty-eyed, wet-cheeked

Pissed your pants ecstasy?

How many drinks does it usually take 

To comfortably wash down a bowl of tuna 

Casserole glazed with brown sand?

If you had to tell me who

You really are, would you 

Do it with fruits or fractals?

Can you feel this?

What about here?

Sharp or dull? Tickled or just annoyed?

Tell me when you can read this row of letters….

When the bell begins to sound like birdsong….

When the whiff of adolescence fades from this patch of denim

I’m going to say three unrelated words

Then a set of randomly generated numbers

Tomorrow, under the full moon, you will 

Tell the stars how many we are

And how we prefer to be called

1/8/25