Newspaper Holiday

No paper today
World’s stopped
or just stopped caring
about sad commentaries

Sometimes forget it’s real
Love, rage
ensconced on a page
more easily managed than raw emotion

Blue-chip eyes, what does it mean to understand dreams, 
know you have them?
Low-risk ears, what does it take to rifle through the reams,
filter the shit I feed you?
Artless voice, what does it say when it wakes the world up
in that sleeping soft shell?

No horoscope today
So I’ll blindly stare 
through twelve hours of mind-game solitaire
I’m fine with the fine print
But I can’t make out the headlines

I wish it were as calculated as it comes across in print
Not hack poetry that parses out to loves-me, loves-me-not
But neither harassment nor hard love could 
wipe away your smile
All pearl in rough and mettle
that treasure isn’t lost

You remind me of a cartoon, that’s a compliment
You speak like a child, that’s to the point
On this newspaper holiday, maybe
I’ll pull a back issue from the door-side bin and stare where you can’t be found

Because you defy editorial, 
defy machination, 
defy expectation,
defy my imagination.