where they come from

sometimes

they claw their way out of me

poems I never meant to write

sometimes I vomit them up

can't keep them down

the angry poems

you didn't want to see

I didn't want to show you

sometimes they take me by the throat

and I must

shout them out at you

or they will choke me

and then I am slayed by the tears

you hold inside

shamed by my anger

humbled by futility

and I crawl back into

the fetal lock of bones and

confinement

and wait for the next

violent storm

to give me a window on

life

                                   2004