You Are A Disease (November 2003)

You just don't know when to stop
like some nightmarish game of
whac-a-mole
you pop
up at the most inopportune time
It's been 3 years
and you just won't quit
you're like that zit right
between my eyes
that doesn't disappear after
several tries at eradication
don't you understand
I told you to leave me the
hell alone
just fucking go home
to the roach motel you
crawled out of
you keep doing what you do
but I want nothing to do
with you
you've made me so angry
you've driven me to poetry
you are a disease.
You have given me a
syllabic sickness
an ailment of alliteration
a metaphoric mononucleosis
or hyperbolic herpes
you are a disease
I recover from this
melodious malady
only to go into
word withdrawal
I'm infected with invectives
until I vomit vernacular
and get lyrical lockjaw
you are a disease
Now I have poetic palsy
and verbal visions
an epilepsy of epithets
that causes semantic seizures
until I go into
colloquial cardiac arrest
leading
to a
rhythmic
rigor
mortis
you are a disease.