I’m so bored with

being a SOLIPSIST

I need to know you

exist, EYE SCREAM

for someone to

COME IN AND

BURN with me

DO I COME HERE

OFTEN? depends

on who’s asking-

I would for you,

cuz I’m TURNED

ON by your HARD

VOLUME and I

need to GET SOME

GO AGAIN

oh please, SLIP IT

IN my SWEAT BOX

like the HOT

ANIMAL MACHINE

you are

////

Oh Henry!, my Henry

I know you like I

know the night

and the wounds on my

twisted soul. I

need you like a gun

needs a knife,

needs a mouth,

needs a hole. Yr

my punk rock dream

come true, a real

fine bullet, a real

mother-fuck, I want

you. I want to turn

you on, turn you

inside out, I guess

what I’m saying is

I want you to want

me. It’s just

you’re so pretty

when yr putty, yr

so damaged like a

fist to a mirror.

Shit, let’s break

each other. If love

is a social

disease, let’s

catch it together.

////

my fist

myself love

Suspicion

is

cold love

Because

I

burn

love I practice

I

destroy

love my life,

it's time

love

Your knife,

Love heart Sweating

love screamed

laid on the floor

no more

love

////

I’ll be real now—I

don’t wanna fuck you.

Sex is scary, and I’ve

been pretty mutilated

by this beast called

love. I’ve been

battered by fists and

shattered by life, by

all those lonely

nights. I know you

know what that’s like.

Henry—my best friend

almost died in a

carwreck. I know

almost isn’t the same

as dead but we don’t

talk anymore and

that’s it’s own kind

of loss. I’ve lost

most of my friends in

some way. What I’m

saying is—I don’t need

a one-night stand.

Let’s just be friends.

Let’s drink coffee

black as our rotten

hearts, listen to

Sabbath. Let’s compare

scars.

[NOTE: in part one, the phrases in caps are the titles of some books and albums by Henry Rollins/Rollins Band/Black Flag; part three is a poem found within the lyrics of “I Love You” by Black Flag.]

Jessie Lynn McMains is a punk poet and beat zinester. She was the 2015-17 Poet Laureate of Racine, WI. She collects souvenir pennies and stick & poke tattoos, and is perpetually nostalgic, melancholy, and restless. She wrote and published this poem because it’s Henry Rollins’ birthday, and because, as owner of Bone & Ink Press, she can do whatever the fuck she wants. You can find her website at recklesschants.net.

#februarymarch2018 #poetry #jessieLynnmcmains #graphicpoem #valentines #sex #henryrollins #scars