Fred Thomas
Unfading Flowers
Dreams of limitless light and of an unfading flower
While crashed on the cushionless couch
In the trashed college house
After another series of regrettable hours
A collector of faces
A thief of ideas
A hoarder of hardships
And we’re all here
Gathered at the table with frozen features
Over unopened beers
But who are you to tell me how to ruin my meal?
And who am I to tell you how you actually feel?
In the exhausted bathroom and the insincere kitchen
Cryptic admissions seem to be written
In the toothpaste smear on a spit-flecked mirror
Where your stare returns itself
The tightening throat
The covered blue boats
The failure to pass that 101 class
The half-hearted shrug
The cum on the rug
And the way that they say each other’s names
The books on the shelf and the food in the cupboard
Are different brands of empty promises
A bag of moldy baby carrots sits atop a pile of empty pizza boxes
And outside the spike in crime
And the clack of skateboard wheels
Let us know that spring has finally arrived
These complication days, don’t let them stress you out
Because everything is exactly the same
Just going under a different name now
The banishment you’re swallowing has no nutritional value
The night has already passed
The city has no center
That unfading flower and the limitless light
And the repeating sound
So familiar by now
But I say it again because I want you to hear
But I say it again because I want you to hear