Jason Bateman is a Soldier Being Shot At.
Joe Atkins

The need to affirm what we are emits from every movement.
I watch the television, include you in my daily life.
I am the reflection of a war, on a warring civilization,
Writing poetry. I am not a marble maker.
It is important to know what we are not.
The process of negation becomes growth.
I am the bird bone feeling of a summer Thursday night.
Drinking alone, which is cliche, lonely drinking the night.
What issues are there behind this, intention?
Am I stabbing my premature thoughts into the keypad,
Blinding myself with the glowing light without purpose?
How can any movie end with Jamie Foxx saying,
“I told her we were gonna kill em all”?
I watch the fans spin forward then quickly backward
& feel like Yeats, except my wife doesn’t tell me stories
From the perspective of a Roman. She tells me
Other stories from her family, about drugs & abuse
& redemption. I feel wht suburban because of this.
I am wht suburban because of this. I am the restless.
I am the satiated. I am the spilled drink staining into the floor.
But no matter how Downey I put this,
It comes out the same, like making it rain.
I am the carnage lulling you to sleep,
Which means I am not the dry heave waking you
From the dream where you have a friend to drink with.