disco ball migration

we all put on our sunglasses to stay alive. 
the glint & guts were loud as fire ants.
no one wanted to dance anymore but
the jubilation was mandated. you must
smile for the big cheeseburger. you must
shake your body like a bell. a priest blessed
the teeth of new disciples. we were too young
to know that this was it. this was where
you lose your voice. captured in 
a traveling salesperson's brief case. walking
he would wait years to put his ear 
to the leather & hear our hesitation. our fears
of growing up inside a polluted snow globe.
when i could no longer breathe i turned
into a jump rope. the trees turned into
telephone poles straining to hold up
the sky. this was years ago now. it is funny
how the fires can become normal. once,
an alarm town & now walking to grocery store
i think to myself, "another another another."
the smoothening edges of a catastrophe.
again, the lights spill from the slit throat
of the sky. come all the pigs & pillow rocks.
stoning a man in the street outside my window.
i used to think i could open my arms wide
& catch the metal as it came. instead, now,
i become the prayer keeper. a coin under
my tongue. visiting the dead like statues. 
do not worry about anything. there is
a suggestion box at the end of the world.
there, i go. cut off my hand. feed it to the lips.