threads

pureness in reality
    around these parts
pureness in death
    a crime is committed nearly every minute
pureness in complexion
    and the perpetrators are rarely unknown to the victims
pureness in fire
   
you must have a singular purpose, one with a backup
you're never stronger (eye of a needle)
than when you've consumed your own heart
and filled the space with a mad dream

there were five men on the north-bound train
when it left the station
only one arrived (and he had no teeth)

police officers in bathrobes
reviewed the case
they smoked tobacco
they ate veal chops
they took an untested drug
in a clandestine club
where merchants of sound
pulled threads though their ears

once the universe is aware of its own existence
it seeks to protect itself through the elimination
of external and internal threats
it will take bread over circuses
but it still wants something
to watch while it eats

oh lord the squadron of shrapnel
flew in formation
into my eye

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holiness

the beats found holiness in the mundane
this is an attitude worth having
sometimes we forget that all of reality
is alive with meaning
even rocks, even empty space