I was engaged in some freewriting earlier, and I began writing some awful lines…but then this poem emerged (which may, in fact, still be awful).

Things I’ve Done, Things I’ll Do

Once upon a time, I killed
a wiggly worm in a drain,
and then I called my mother,
confessing the crime and weeping
like a man who didn’t have teeth.

There have been occasions I wrote
my name backward and wondered
if someone would speak it aloud
and turn me into a raging demon
that drags people down into flame.

In the future, I have enormous,
banana-yellow plans that include,
among other things, eviscerating
a politician, boiling an oak tree,
and bragging about it all to God.