— tapioca world tour

My prayers are empty
but I want overflowing vessels,
I want a wide sea.
Sometimes when I brush my teeth, I think of what must
be happening in Iraq and stare, vacantly,
then spit. I want a new beginning, I want a mango.
That’s it.

{found tonight, several years later}

Nothing but the grey on grey
of a mountain disappearing into itself;

Nothing but the endless sand
spread out before us as if to taunt

“This is enough.” Nothing nothing nothing but
the foggy future and the dissipating past;

a house on a hill,
a military training camp.

Vacant trucks racing toward
the shadows of mountains

and our perpetual silence
singing now, louder than it ever has.