What I meant to say is it feels odd

to trust people while I’m lying

on a stretcher but what came out

was that I want living and loving

to hurt that’s how I know they’re real,

whereas in my dreams I feel no pain

and have 360 degree vision like a rabbit,

thus no need to trust anyone or anything

but my own vision, whereas in the real

world one of the inherent limitations

of being human is that we only have eyes

in the front of our heads or in my case

on the back of the side of my head where

all the hair used to be, unlike pigmy owls

who have decoy eyes in back that predators

can pluck out rather than the good, working ones

and I meant to say people will betray you

when you’re not looking especially those outside

the group whom we refer to as the others

but what came out was I feel alienated

from the group like I’m another other

and I meant to say I feel alone

but what came out was I need a loan

and I smiled at the homophone, because I love

poetry, because I’m a knight in the night,

I let bees be, I dig the whole hole, and

I got rejected, left alone by lenders

and rightfully so and I meant to say

I discovered poetry and sex at about the same time

but what came out is that both, for me,

are about my desire to be desired

I meant to be polite and say please with tears

in my eyes but what came out were pleas and tears

in the middle of the pages where the words

that came out couldn’t touch what I meant to say.