Brain Tease

My head’s kind of twisting,
like off-kilter camera angles
and arguments where no one’s listening.

I’m happier grounded;
concrete in synapses trying to escape
their boundaries.

And ya, I’ve payed like hell, fought like hell, sought loopholes
and half-truths to keep the final bell
from ringing,

but if I don’t feed the beast from time to time
then it’ll all come back at once
and finally there’ll
be no receipt for my fragile mind.

So sapphire treble-clefs
and circumvented minefields
come dime-a-dozen,

and I rummage through the parts
I can handle,

smoke the rest
and exhale into rooms
grown from chloroplast 
and effulgent candles.

I can’t man-handle
my disposition,

but I can sure as fuck
distance myself from crystal prisons,
treacherous schisms
and apocalyptic visions.

The wisdom of winsome kingdoms
clings to my survival
in a symbiotic
(admittedly neurotic) way.

and today
has got to, got to, got to,
be the daring plankton
that got away.

Willie Watt
3.24.15