from "Types of Glass"
by James Grinwis

Lupine

1.      
2. She has a stronger pre frontal cortex.

1. It is said an animal knows when it is ready to die.

1. A lion will kill a wildebeest gently when they exchange glances.
2. When the animal is ready to give up
3. or when it isn’t

1. depends.

1. Some people go out there to get lost.

1. Some go there to find something.

Fledged

1.      
2. They are always fledged, they
3. are flying, and wings are things we know

1. from their bones and anatomies

1. but know nothing, really, of what it is
2. to do that.

1. If I were an owl I would have killed
2. many little animals

1. before being stupid enough to get
2. smashed by an SUV or a telephone cable.

1. I love the way

1. she looks at me, like there are smashed
2. wings vomiting out of her irises

1. which are flowers which are elevator wires which

1. just are

1. To know what “are” is
2. means I am going crazy

1. there is no one there

1. but there is.

Toughened

1.      
2. So in case a rock hits it, it shatters
3. in a way that is totally safe,
4. like in a million dense, harmless bits.
5. To be toughened completely,
6. is that to be without pain?
7. Or at least toughening?
8. What about completely giving in?
9. There is a shell inside of the television
10. that guides you to shows
11. that are actually totally the wrong things to watch.
12. What about the Red Sox? What about Chopped?
13. There is a form of glass
14. that is chopped, it inhabits the limbic system
15. in an addict’s brain.
16. People with addiction issues
17. have lives nobody knows about
18. except other inhabiters of addiction.
19. They were all trying to find a solution
20. for pain and a way to have love not hurt them.
21. And now they barely breathe, we breathe the way
22. glass breathes.

Extra Clear

1.      
2. If you look at the sun you turn blind
3. as this type of glass. But any poem
4. about looking at the sun
5. is sort of smarmy unless
6. you are an amazing person.
7. I can’t do that, so I write ditties about glass.
8. Like how my name is glass
9. and imagine an earth
10. without glass, all of the buildings
11. and establishments
12. like giant tombs, the sky a huge
13. rain infested mollusk, how did we even
14. discover glass? The secret came from
15. a chunk of obsidian, my secret to existence
16. is knowing I don’t know.