Nobody Knows Me

The superfluous, the silly, pared entirely back—
nonsensicalifornia faded to black
the light flipped on, and everything is gone

no air

no oxygen for
the last ember

I think it’s there but where did it go
I can’t see it in this light

a boring strain of the mundane
and i’m playing a role
so long I don’t remember how to stop
and now the others are gone

the music still plays
I remember the feeling but
can’t get back to

where was it

can I say there is a tree here
there is only emptiness and black

I will call it a tree and this is a leaf
and if I speak it will it come back

I had a body
I had black eyeliner

I stayed out and nothing mattered
I laughed and risks were whatever
I was more than an ember

Now the lights here turn on and off
but the dark is too deep
it overtakes me

and the days paper over me
with images that are not mine
and the voice of me beneath it

I can’t understand
buried, distant—

nobody knows me
nobody knows me
nobody knows me