1.

Roman soldier bothered to learn allegiance

To the cause of hindsight,

Like a cashier staring past customer service

To a clock signaling break-time. Give up 

Last seconds of life,

For a customer criticizing unreliable coupons. 

Caesar expanded space 

To Gaul. Tesla purchased enough space

To fill a galaxy. 

Collar coated peasants 

Wink with their mouths

And hide falling stars

Inside their teeth. 

Roman soldier crossed his legs,

Brushed dandruff and dust 

Off his swollen armor. 

A galaxy away

Cashier did the same.

Only, her protection 

Showed in wrinkles 

From when she took off

Her smock to accompany the carpet

And dangled her ambitions

From the ceiling fan.

2.

A holding slide retains the screen. A fly circulates along peripherals and lands inside the computer’s glow. Slide show transition censors the monitor in darkness, exposing the fly’s crawling pattern, made in the dust. 

Among these secular moments, coincidental meditation transcribes recollections from a false witness. 

White board placement, fixed in plaster with veracity, perpetuates the hallucination of a level-world. “What’s a perpendicular lesson plan worth without an ending?” 

A living portrait sans aesthetic relevancy fires bullet points: 

Eyelid

Eyepopping 

Lowlip

Callusfingertip 

Ready-made-boredom. 

Sleeping habits prepare the body for decay:

Welcoming dream state death practice

Welcoming waking life zombification. 

At break time

Trainees 

Window shop for yesterday’s news,

But find the glass shattered in patterns

Familiar to waves oscillating 

Inside a sewage run-off.