straw house, straw dog

By THE Richard Siken
Solid my bad btw I missed some parts


I watched TV.
I had a Coke at the bar.
I had four dreams in a row where you were burned, about to burn, or still on fire.

I watched TV.
I had a Coke at the bar.
I had four Cokes, four dreams in a row.
Here you are in the straw house,
feeding the straw dog.
Here you are in the wrong house,
feeding the wrong dog.
I had a Coke with ice.
I had four dreams on TV.
You have a cold cold smile.


You were burned,
you were about to burn, you’re still on fire.
Here you are in the straw house, feeding ice to the dog,
and you wanted an adventure, so I said
Have an adventure.


The straw about to burn, the straw on fire.
Here you are your on the TV,
saying Watch me, just watch me.

2
Four dreams in a row,
four dreams in a row,
four dreams in a row,


fall down right there.
I wanted to fall down right there
but I knew you wouldn’t catch me
because you’re dead.
I swallowed crushed ice
pretended it was glass
and you’re dead.
Ashes to ashes.
You wanted to be cremated
so we cremated you
and you wanted an adventure
so I ran
and I knew you wouldn’t catch me.

You are a fever I am learning to live with,
and everything is happening
at the wrong end
of a very long tunnel.
3
I woke up in the morning
and I didn’t want anything,
didn’t do anything,
couldn’t do it anyway,

just lay there
listening to the blood rush through me
and it never made
any sense,
anything.
And I can’t eat,
can’t sleep,
can’t sit still or fix things
and I wake up
and I wake up
and you’re still dead,
you’re under the table,
you’re still feeding the damn dog,
you’re cutting the room in half.

Whatever.
Feed him whatever.
Burn the straw house down.



So, I said,
now that we have our dead,
what do we do with them?


There’s a black dog
and there’s a white dog,
depends on which you feed,
depends on which damn dog you live with.
5
Here we are
in the wrong tunnel,
burn O burn,
but it’s cold,
I have clothes all over my body,
and it’s raining,
it wasn’t supposed to.
And there’s snow on the TV,
a landscape full of snow, falling from the fire-colored sky.
But thanks, thanks for calling it the blue sky

You can sleep now,
you said.
You can sleep now.
You said that.


I had a dream where you said that.
Thank you for saying that.
You weren’t supposed to.