Words look back at me

from some dark backcloth,

and yet they’re clear, clearer

than any pain. I don’t seek them

out. I’m not there behind them

perfecting the lure.

 

⁂

 

The fever appears

and I no longer know what to do with it.

It’s my latest flame. I seem

to have reached the edge, a

point of self-annihilation, and I’m turning

into something new.

 

⁂

 

I’m young for death, that’ll be

why I die. Like someone

dying for love. I’m

suffocating, molten, and yet

there’s nothing here, nothing moving

around me.

 

⁂

 

They say it’s a quest

devised by God. I pray.

I pray. though I don’t believe in anything any more.

Any old prayer

spoken aloud.

 

⁂

 

All I did was ask for love.

Keep doing it ’til my heart

breaks. I feel no shame.

I proclaim it. No one’s shocked

by my plea, which must be quite

absurd – and quite plausible.

 

⁂

 

A body opens

like a cool flower.

I offer it to you again. I

didn’t learn anything from life.