Left for dead in the right turn lane
Train pulls its payload of waste
Snakes in the sugar and aspartame dreams
Kung Pao Chicken, seasoned to taste.

Clamshell container, red with residue
Styrofoam squeaks in pain.
Give the devil his due, this food’s for my belly
But this liquor maintains my brain.

The lacquer I lay on it stains it
It’s varnished a golden brown hue.
I paint on 3 coats of old Jameson
To forget and to remember you.

Embers and ashes, I poke at the wood
the home fire’s all burned through.
The bed is cold, pantry is empty.
The woes of my world have accrued.

Compound interest; I’d be a rich man
If pain loss and death were pennies.
I found you like religion, lost you like sin,
Consolations? I haven’t found any.