I remind the bull in my blood
how your love is not painted china.

He doesn’t know how to interpret
the cost projections regarding

the glue factory it would take
to save something worth eating off of.

I am teaching it to gore wood,
puncture plaster, avoid bridges.

I’ll bribe an intern with college credit,
give him or her cloth to thread

through the holes. I won’t know
what the bull is trying to say.

bull man filter pink

J. Bradley is the author of Bodies Made of Smoke (HOUSEFIRE, 2012). He lives at iheartfailure.net.