Ode to Mike Tyson

Sometimes I wanna say no

just so I can say it like you do.

As though nothing can be affirmed,

as though you can’t run into the ocean.

No. The appeased aren’t onto us.

No. A small, triumphant church.

No. A dog chasing a glove

on a street I can’t remember.

Freedom is only lonely

when you let it be.

The heat precedes the fire.

A boy precedes the heat.

Sometimes a lake is really a sea,

your prize pigeon beheaded.

Unmask my pet illusions.

Devastate the world.