Stray cats
hacking up hairballs
and a dull white noise.
My neighbor high off his golden ass
on bath salts
screaming at his girlfriend
and shoving his daughter
off the edge of the oak.
Some mountains can be flat
and
impassable.
Like goodbyes
peeling themselves apart
from the inside.
But here
it’s
you and I
staring at each other
under a blistering sun.
A sum of the parts,
I stare into your eyes;
of which
the deepest ocean
couldn’t hope to compare
Just then I notice tears
run down your face
like stars
dripping
across a dull orange sky.
Besides being published in bathroom stalls across America, Tyler Gates is also the author of the novel Unhinged as well as the chapbook On The Pitfalls of Being a Cockroach in Love.
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