Call It What You Will

Corbin Louis

2016 we decided fast and loose we decided

rooftop spell “say it with your chest” with your cigarette and your incubator and the light rail half built like the skeleton of a concrete god

In Seattle we drank gallons of tomorrow u, resurrected angel, made me ramen at 3:20am

u, kept me warm through February in a year I had nowhere to be and that’s how I survived

the oxycyclone the second part of a friday shift dragging my body like a blinking corpse

my chief complaint, is life I explain u nod ‘atrophy and fireworks’ ‘what’s the difference’ I ask ‘perspective’ u whisper but call it what u will

haywire

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38 diagnosed borderline the wino monsoon on 1st and Cherry

if now is all we have then does it matter how insane I went getting sober or does it matter how hard my teeth chattered to write goodbye

certainly

or not don’t overthink it I tell myself enjoy pink lemonade light on your dirty window the 3 hours of crisp morning on halloween before I crashed in a ditch

before I ate the silos and orchids and felt to a certainty I can’t work u kissed me

not today maybe I won’t be sick if I sleep today maybe I won’t be sick

2 for operator on the nurse line and u with 1000 ecstasy tablets in your hair

u took me in like slow poison and what a year to cherish the drink of the city 30 inches of rain

your name on every drop and what it means to be drenched with each other

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