Raj Dronamraju

I shook your hand
I took the loss
Escape was impossible
I took the loss
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The hand of friendship was offered
The hand of friendship was slapped away
The trajectory of the spurned
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We are the goldfish in the bowl
We are known as Mr. and Mrs. Goldfish
I don't mind this transparency, a benign surveillance
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Have you ever heard Saturday morning radio?
Is the radio programming different on Saturday morning compared to weekdays?

She dreads small talk and making his lunch
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Love sighted through an opening in deep forest
A blur that moves quickly and vanishes
But leaves a lasting impression
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If obnoxiousness is art consider this your exhibition gallery
Different stages of difficult behavior hang on the walls
"Don't touch" but some illiterate fool usually ends up doing just that
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She is the queen of the replacements
Her people await further orders in a large open-air building
A former factory - old and gray and damp, it looks like the 1950's
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I wear a badge to my office
I run it through a scanner in order to punch in
It gives me access
It shows I belong
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I was not shamed and I was not fierce
Stir the pot - not so much anymore
Plan my day around what's on television
Rely on the Internet for all contact with other people
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She's found a way to the summit
There was a tussle and he let go of the string and you floated away over the parking lot
He selected you from the pack of ten because the bright pink color caught his attention
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Hang around with people I don't really like
Drive around for miles in cement decadence
Hold court in distance, each freeway exit is like a foreign country
Here's your border and on the other side is quivering jello
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Upstairs is the place where they found you too meticulous
Went off like fireworks when they saw the pasted together montage
Hypochondriacs in their hysteria, professional in focus on self
You found the threat of injury from all those around you
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At the part where one is taken down a peg or two
Which for her was when she broke her back in a car accident
Tap her wrist, numb percussion and externalized sensation
I assumed a change in circumstance taught her to be nice
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Before you could say a word, the world spoke up and admitted you make it feel uncomfortable
You are too forceful, too quick to talk over others

You would like to talk about how you are not comfortable, how you cannot be yourself in this world
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The iconoclast and the plumes of ethereal effort curling and vanishing up his own noggin
He knows enough but cannot make commands understandable to thick hands
The tools demanded by this task are readily given
Flawed initiation in the setting of inside
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The phrase "I want to be inside you" just makes people laugh
We laughed when I said it as no one takes this talk of the physical seriously
Dear sow, what we can talk about is that you are from Kenya
I bought her coffee at the train station and we talked of this
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I've got listicles and pistols
And cut up rows of meaning to be inserted or loaded in a chamber and fired into thought

I've got listicles and pistols
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It took me a long time to learn to make excuses
To proceed in the pattern of fearless request
Reality superimposed and consequence free
Surprise, surprise, hurting other people doesn't come from this
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Take a load off
Punch the girl you love in the face figuratively speaking
Refuse to go to work and hide in the basement
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I embrace you as a scientist
And as someone who uses reason
Who views you long term as someone who barely makes sense
But oh the valuable quality of the sense you make
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