sometimes_i'm_less raze two strangers stand in the middle of the paved path that leads to a house where i spent a good chunk of my childhood learning what fear was. an awkward first date begins or ends with the quoting of poetry. speak not this and be not that. if i had a dollar for every word i gave to someone who didn't value what i had to share, i'd buy this box and burn it to the ground, and i'd have a whole lot of spare_change left over. and then there's you. bedridden and biting. my mind makes what i hear you say white letters on a beige background. i ask if there's anything i can do for you, though i'd rather be anywhere but here right now. your voice isn't much more than a whisper. you tell me all i have to do is be clever. "my cleverness will be a matter of taste," i say. "but i will try." sometimes that's all you can do, doomed as you are to disappoint yourself and anyone else who might be paying_attention. 240522 what's it to you? who go blather from