poem
by john sweet


forget the truths
you were given in school

forget your ideas about beauty

let the burning girl
be your cathedral

or what about this?

every woman who has ever told me
she loves me
has also at some point
told me she hates me

every poem i've ever written
has fallen short of
what i wanted to say

and you need to understand that
each day matters

you need to scream
when your father dies but
only in your car and only as you
drive to your mother's house

remember that the camera
is still running in
some curtained motel room while
the woman is untied and
allowed to crawl to the bathroom

remember that the catholic church
is a stain on
the face of anyone's god

there is nothing so holy
that it can
never be destroyed






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