James Diaz- A Poem & Photo

I Never Promised You A Pain Garden

You've stayed up all night 

with words like these before

and even when it didn't pain you

when it cost you nothing

almost nothing to do so

and now that it costs 

you everything

you aren't so sure that you have 

the stomach for it

it's how wind grips 

at the gnarled branch

of angel oak

a cryptic anagram 

of lovelorn and places-that-I-am-going

rearranged until they too

have copyrighted forms

you're no longer allowed to touch

each part of body tagged

and numbered with some silver pen

borrowed from hell

here's the absolute truth that you've been missing

everything your roving eyes

went looking for 

still-life in the dead of night

tucked under your shirt, names, dates

horror shows from that last town

at the edge of the world

and your screaming mother

and your heroin eyed father

and all of that tainted love you could never trust

building residential ares inside the ghetto

of your skull

come out of there

we aren't going to watch idly by

while you burn this fucking life

that somehow made it through

to the ground

don't plant your feet in eternal swamp

and call it your only option

take your scars and remember how much joy too

they contain

how even that is their story

and with absolutely no end

for how this life will land

begin bringing that pain with you

everywhere you go

hold it when it wails

and goddamn will it forever wail

I'm telling you

even that can be beautiful

if you'll let it.