Under a jovial outside
there are storms
contortions play drums
it's why I let inanimate nouns
modify each other
because I want to mold
without turning green
and I want blue
without the price of the sky
but I'll pile up dirt
as I keep digging the holes on the beach
that kept a child out of the riptides
going under happens in either place
but the acts of swimming out or heading down
falsely deny their inevitable conclusions
by working toward instead of as is
a means, meanly, at an end, ending
but I don't want that starry flight
I want to be content
and that's where we're the same
wishing for what we already have
sweating as if the salt and water
might come together to make
the ocean of our dreams
and nightmares.
Roman Ryan 