screw empathy julie payne they've cut down the judas tree by the river i have nothing to hang you by you are in my head while i walk in the sand i write your name with a stick you drown i remember things that haven't happened yet the bridge lights are out there is nothing here to tell people where not to go once there was a man who was sucked into a roller dam the price for going where you cannot help yourself a train goes by separates me from the rest of the world it's a relief to be without choices i play narcissus with the water i look like algae and tiny fish i smell like hooker pussy i do not fall if there were no rules i would sleep on the rocks with the snakes and the ducks and the used condoms that float by like fresh-water jellyfish i would remove my right hand the biology of the dead carp would get a closer look if there were less empathy in the world i wouldn't know the leech on my left foot if there were more there would still be a willow tree right there