truthbetold.

[ walks on stage ]

[ stands in front of the mic ; taps it ; mic gives minor feedback ]



ahem.

[ opens my sheet of paper; leans into the mic ]


my piece is called "freefalling on two feet".

[ someone in the audience coughs ]


it struck me
dumbdeafblind
for about all of half of a third of a second.
and in the recovery second that followed
i opened my cell phone and deleted
every number
of every other guy
i ever(y) knew
and "talked to".

HOWTHEHELLAREYOUCAPABLEOFTHIS?!

i'm trusting you.
i don't have a backup plan.
i don't want a backup plan.
measure twice cut once and i've ripped a hole out the sky
fashioned a trust
fund(ing) this investment, interest-ment
(what in the magenta hell, you've got me making up words)
excuse me,
i meant,
it meant that i was letting myself go.
to be quite metaphorically correct,
you've been approved for the loan to buy real estate below my cross chain
unless, of course, you're paying cash
and i'd have to ask
where you got this stash
and how many shoeboxes it filled.
legal love-me tender
make me green around the gills and back
as dead as the precedence
of lackluster layaways.

and something kinda tells me that if i wake up in my bed
not in Disneyland,
forecast slightly cloudy
chance of rain
when i regain consciousness in reality...
that you'll be there
telling me what a weird ass dream that was
that there was no syrup for the pancakes
and no one who understood that CHARLIE'S A NONBELIEVER
and how good it is to be awake
with me.


[ audience remains silent ]

thank you.

[ walks off stage ]




pAce.