Sunday, September 13, 2015

Toni Grote



May 26 Original Surreal Landscape 18x24 -- Toni Grote












lost



this sound you make
like breaking glass
 
these walls you
pull tight around you
 
that turn to dust or
burst into flames and
the fact that who you are is me
 
midnight and sitting
in a room i don't recognize
 
driving in the emptiness
between two towns i don't know
 
in bed at some point and
my wife next to me crying
 
my hands finding each other
in the dim glow of the streetlights
and this idea of oceans
 
of escape or drowning
 
the money gone but the
age of salvation approaching
 
the possibility of hope
almost
worth considering
 
this
and nothing more



Pilate in the age of oblivion



something obvious then
like the number of people who've
said they hate me
 
the speed at which a man
might fall
from the 98th floor
 
or maybe that you knew him
 
maybe that you slept with his wife
in a house
neither one of you called home
 
there are worse things
of course
but pain is pain
 
nothing grows in its shadow
and no one needs to breathe
 
no one tries to speak
 
it's enough to drive
the nails through the flesh
without hesitation