Like A Lunatic Crying A Quiet Cry Poem by gregory collins

So i did it. Like my tear greets the oceans and
laughs at its salt. Like all the boats sleep behind

every blade of grass, and you can only wake them
if you paint the eyes of humanity like a shirt

you can stretch into a sail many years later.
But i did it. I folded that twenty dollar bill

with its green song that could crush me into water,
when the sunset gets up from a feverish night.

Sweat scratching madly like thorns coughing
with a fever. But i folded that twenty dollar bill

and walked into its prehistoric rain: like an ancient
vase that has had alot more time to cry than me.

I folded it corectly like a torch we all must hold,
like the teeth of a smiling murderer,

and i pressed myself way back beyond graying hair,
and childhood. Way back beyond the sky and

indifferent cackling laughs. Way back beyond
the candles of my soul that overflow into rivers,

and i think i can hear Thomas Jefferson holding his breath.
Just like i rolled up that bill and peeled the dead for today.

Just like i am hunting for leftover fruit, that fell
off the tree of liberty, trembling before your lips.