My Brain

Like what?

Like Shedlarz in High School.
Bobby Shedlarz.  A known asshole.

1,

Sticks to me like burr
nonstop talking, talking, talking, saying what?

a movie, a garter snake, a mumbled nothing, bossy, something itches, a dream he had, how nobody likes him, how he wishes he had, how he can’t sleep how

he’s planing to do
he’s planning to make
the details are important
how he’ll never have sex
with Judy Koplawitz, 
above his pay grade,
how stupid everyone is
how he wishes he were dead
Kill! Kill! Kill?
Never shuts up.

Sometimes Shedlarz would mutter
a song the same song and the same song and 
the same song and,
like endlessly toppling dominoes.

Once he had a great idea,
he tells me every day
and bestrode the world like a colossus,
smug as a royal straight flush.

That was Shedlarz,
There was no getting rid of him.

2.

When Shedlarz met his like
there was hell to pay.

That time you and I
were discussing our favorite Chinese dishes,

Kung Pau Chicken, Shrimp Dumplings,
and how we felt inside,

our brains in another room 
vying for the keyhole,

laughing at our little lies,
and warming up
to embarrassing plain sight 
our invisible ink.

Then they got into a fight
yelling and screaming

pinching and biting, 
and pulling each other’s hair.

Softhearted you
scolded yours in your  arms.

Desperate I
fled through the night in the wind and rain,

Shedlarz racing to catch up.