POEM OF THE DAY BY JOSH RIZER

Vacupuncture

i wish i could remove things

in answer to this western solution

of adding things on,

this triple quarter pounder big mac of solutions and remedies,

this high fructose, blazing sodium seasoning 

used to spice up spoiled food for thought.

i wish deft and expert hands could move along your body, removing

gaffs, tridents, harpoons, rescue hooks,

all the leisters

that the tiny little people have lashed to you

to bring you down.

the acupuncture didn’t work after all,

not with the tools they used anyway,

the hypodermic needles,

the ballpoint pen tracheotomies,

the intubations,

all of it ghastly and invasive,

all of meant to

vaccinate you from the truth of yourself.

baggage?

you’ve got a luggage rack, pal.

i wish i could take that away instead of inventing more storage.

cross to bear?

buddy, your hauling all of latitude and longitude itself

and i wish i could remove that

instead of strutting it on some sick runway.

it would be great to scrape off the irritations

instead of adding meditations to cope with them.

basically we’re talking about subtracting illness

as opposed to adding medication, 

make sense?

what i’m getting at is that most of us don’t need

needles put in,

we need syringes pulled out,

the needles that crocheted the spaghetti of our brains

into some foreign tapestry.

imagine an expert coming along quietly,

painlessly removing 

the darts, 

the flechettes, 

the arrows,

the pikes,

the spears,

pulling off the bear traps,

slipping the thorns from your paw

and finally, with the help of several orderlies,

removing you from the life you have embedded yourself in

like an alabama tick.

it would be nice to apply that dentist’s vacuum

and withdraw all the slobber

from your cheeks,

the salivation from coveting greener grass.

it would be best if that

suction tube were applied,

withdrawing the thing that came to term in you

that you never came to terms with. 

the thing they shot you full of

when they fucked you.

in fact,
come to think of it,

it would be healthiest if

you just forgot you ever read this.

-Joshua Rizer