matt roth

Control Respect

/ majormattusa

When you showed your father
You could hold that snake
Without flinching.

When you heard them coming
Wrapping your finger around
The plastic trigger.

When you first glossed over.
Feeling the truth in blood
Learning to hold the leash.
The thrill of releasing the lie
About meat and making things happen.

Curled into a ball, in your bed
Anticipating unknowable lightening strikes,
Listening for the RAP TAP TAP of rain drops
The thunder shook your walls
Like the sides of a roller coaster.

That day in summer camp.
The tools and the protocol
The wood in your hand
The passing of the torch.

Not control,
Respect
For distant thunder,
The child
And the childhood’s end.

Coercive Diplomacy

/ majormattusa

The leash follows your explorations
I keep my thumb on the button
I’ll bag your shit
For my neighbors

You feel free and safe

We limp along
Two bullets at the bar
Patriots under duress
Hollywood guilt
Outside the body

Boys find their purpose
Playing guns like guitars
Piece of wood
A Samari sword

At what age can I start judging?
To save a life
How big do I have to be?
How important
To me

The earth of my skin

/ majormattusa

Has been through so much
Frozen and thawed frozen and thawed
I am starting to nap
The next ice storm sends my body into hibernation
The birds need so much
They eat fast
Leave their broken shells beneath the feeder
So much time looking for the ones that dropped
Winter has no time to mourn
No time to consider gender or spirit
There is one sun for every winter

Deep State

/ schwervon

Early buds
En route en route

Working with greatness
Requires great patience
Your bones must be hollow to fly
Something bigger than all of this
Like hunting the rarest of all things
Willing to take our lashes
Bunker down in wet socks
Peek through the cracks
Cup our fingers over our mouths
And blow on them for warmth
We hear breathing

Padded mallots bring us closer
To the truth than our original protocal

Something deeper
Than the mutual deceptions
The body rises and falls
with the breath.
We are the breath
The easy speakers
We translate the barks and the chirps
The undersides of leaves

Dog Catcher Heart 

/ schwervon

Upon waiting for the apology text
I witness Starbucks
After school revolution

A clean soft lighted place
Escape from the car faces

I read about Eilen Myles
And her Dog Father

I could never walk
My ghost so easily

Never easy for me to see
Who held the leash

Like a job I wait
Transporting myself
To the office in mind

Highway stress
Leaky ceiling drips

Evesdropping on alley crackheads
NPR clouds softening the light

I’m in love, I’m alone
I work in my home

I’m in love with a
Dog catcher heart

For My Sister and Prince

/ schwervon

Sticking to the floor in the seventh grade
I knew nothing about spirit 
A plan inspired by mistakes

Sister you were there for me
Even when you weren’t 

You lent me your crocodiles 
And hammer swinging horsemen

To fight the echoes in the hallway 
The padded dicks that 
Slammed gainst the lockers 

Peroxide future 
Earrings and feathers 
I drank the purple passion

Lied to the college girl
Followed the code 
I made up as I went along 
And did all my best work in basements 

Digest the orphan

/ schwervon

The remaining hairs
Continue to grow
And will need to be cut
By someone
Eventually 

Make a simple thing difficult
A separate bag for each item 

Washing preservatives

Timers and alarms
Notes and instructions

Proof of a worked life 

To digest the orphan
Who has traveled
So far to meet you 

Do not worry father
I will be there to cut your hair 

The way I cut the grass

No smell of garlic
But with a gentile hand 

More gentile than you are accustomed to 

Night walking

/ schwervon

It’s so easy to give a
child a thankless gift 

Walking the pitted pavement
On a warm summer evening 

Holding court
beneath the

Nippled street lamp
Squirting light

Into the sobbing
Mouth of darkness 

Sunburned back
Cut weeds 

Arrows tattooed in concrete
Magic words
Sprayed across walls 

The sky rips open soft
Glowing brainless matter
Putting me as close
As I am permitted 

If I could share
This bliss of isolation 

That’s how much
I love you 

Rocking chair 

/ schwervon

 Tickling the light.
in the  now
spare bed room 

Rocking chair
I am free of your wooden bars 

Half shut Venetian blinds
It’s a jungle in here 

Rich soil covers the floor
Snot on the walls

Heads on the night stand
Lions in the corner

Tripping over old toys

Distant train
It’s time for me
To hear you again 

This is easy for me 

/ schwervon

  This is easy for me 

Forgotten to the core

Without the love, it’s just coffee

The research is the living

The corner of my mouth 

Well marked exits 

The words are peaceful times 

New tables made to look old 

Morning bagels served on a piece of wood 

Excessive validation 

Pacing the garage 

Step by step 

Failing 

Like rain