burn all my notebooks

when i'm gone please do not let

my family read them

one of those

slow boil

decades long

pen pal

situations

please

what if you go i say
he says but what if i stay
& then runs away

what woman carved
the man out of your
hollow boy bones

& sent you packing
with just enough fear to
ramble ‘round rattled

‘til you could only run
from any silence might
mean you’d been filled

it's not about the
destination
it's about the
blind frantic stumbling