We quit cold turkey
Because otherwise it kills us
Don’t you hear?

Listen to yourself,
Because you’re killing yourself
Can’t you listen?

I’m trying to see what kind of idea you have
that you want to spout
But for some reason,
It makes me wonder how you breathe,
rattling alcoholic lungs like the bottom of a bottle
But we’re done
Like we’re done
So now we wonder
And yell
Words reflect and shake
And shudder
Like an old flapping rubber, rubber wheel

But you’re just old, and tired
With bending backs that don’t want to work
Wanting to quit but you can’t
So what left is there but the fog,
Equally broken in the middle of a fussy tantrum
As the bough quirks in the corner,
And starts to heave up dry for your lungs to collapse

So, it’s in this way that I’ll never understand
Lords of the dead
Just as dead and sad
And bitter like
Bitter brethren
Who can’t get over
But you can’t see yourself, spreading spittle
like a rabid animal whose eyes are glass
I see you and your glass eyes too
Rim red and itching like a rash,
It’s sad and a sham and I wonder for you
Like if you wonder for yourself
The same way we wonder about you too

It seems in spite of that you would rather just watch,
And wait to sink blunt little quips like achy little cramps
Jutting into old bones and tired mouths,
Just to lay us down faster
But why should it be easy for anyone,
When we all know you’re just tired
And venting the throes of issues that are old and tedious

We only quit cold turkey
Because any other way kills us
Like blood like fire
It’s all red like our eyes if you can’t see yourself

So I wonder if in the morning,
If you can see yourself
And how you will think of the things you say
Like if you actually ever hate yourself
Or the thought never comes up
Because you’re so stable in your head
Old misshapen screws to hold it together
When you talk about us or anyone else,
It could have fooled me
Like I’m the butt end of the joke
The bottom of the bottle
You’ll never actually see me until morning
But rather you don’t want to see it
Too ashamed or embarrassed to admit such
a thing had happened from your mouth

It’s okay, you’ll never see me in the morning
I can stay at the bottom of a bottle
Where it’s quiet
Where I reminisce,
Where I wonder how you found the quiet chaos
It rumbles and shakes up your brain,
makes you want to take a shot off the deep end
Straight into liquor and a warm haze
Forgetting the stress, makes the pressure easy
For what else would you want the burn for,
if not to gather the teeth in your mouth
and split it for a smile.

It’s not done.
But I’m done.
I’m quiet
I reminisce,
I wonder when I will find my quiet chaos.
The beehive buzz splitting the inside of my skull,
stunning me to stolid visions until I spew venom
Until I can relieve the stress and forget the pressure,
chewing and chewing and chewing my  gums
Until I forget what my teeth are for,
Split it for a smile,
If nothing else.

I want to run and claim the finish line in the end,
but maybe if you jump first
stew and stew and stew
Until death becomes putrid and indescribable
Because we can only quit cold turkey,
tired and calling for death that much faster
Otherwise everything else will just kill us,
If nothing else.