IN STEAD

By Chris Harris

Where were you last night?

But more importantly, WHO were you last night?

Were you Romeo

Composing soliloquoys to your distant sun;

Climbing over walls of stone

And pissing unchecked

On social barriers?

Were you a carefree

Nameless beast

Raging sleepless

Through a neon underbrush

Of tangled streets?

Were you a mindless drone

Starving at a pale screen,

Feeling up a

Palm sized rodent

Looking for someone to lay

your soul to rest?

Were you a son? Were you a father? Were you a teacher? Were you a mother?

Or were you a

were you a

were

wolf

changing place, as you changed your face?

Everything all at once.

Never quite sure where your wondering

I might take you

By open hands

By open mind

By open mouth

By stolen tongue

By hungry hungry hungry

But closed eyes

That you’re misled.

To sleep, in turn, to dream