A Love Song In Four Bars

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