It is very faint. The
Memory whirrs about
In my mind, like an
Old VHS tape. Cold

Static, drawing across
My faintest conceptions.
A grey recording of
A time past, old and

Gone. The bright screen
Under the dark sheets,
The cool August night.
That music. All of it

Faint, hewn in static,
Bleeding from decades
Of being replayed. Now
All I can do is struggle,

Struggle to remember.

'Password too weak'.
I smirk and strike my keyboard,
Add a couple of fives, a question mark
At the end. Who's weak now?
My password has been
Hitting the gym. Stronger than yours.
A small victory.

His new jacket,
Hot off the hot-sale shelves.
Strangely decadent - in the
Personal sense - yet straight,
Reserved, almost classy.
An honest facade, clean-cut

Hides within itself
A rich tapestry of ambiguity.
The lemur paws a jungle-vine,
From whence hangs a
Broad-winged and exotic bloom,
Rich with the complexity of a man

Whose aspect is honesty,
Simple integrity; but whose
Inner workings are ever more vivid
And complex, like the lush petals
Sewn through the lining of
His new jacket.

We happen then. Rushed with
The sharp reel of sirens, blur past,
Smashed out through my skull,
Whirring quietly in the void of
Night-terrors. The cold sheets.

Ice in my veins. Cold gusts of hot wind
Stir through my fragile meat. The
Tall, ebony fortress, the stacked floors
Towering like a stern smack on my
Cheek. The dry taste of ash.

Rising up through volleys, raindrops
Like gunfire, shells pouring across
My matted cheeks, dry eyes, no
Sleep, the street hugging me close,
Mad with love, eating me;

Frail puddles shatter under my
Reflection, heavy with sin and shame
And guilt and longing and pity
And myself, devoted one to its own,
As if I had never been born.

White frost spread thin,
Matte snow, broad-flowing,
Veils on vales, cool-eyed,
Soft-heart, sheet-white,
Glows shy, ignite,
Moonlight.

Sky-bright smears down,
Cross-hitch, white town,
Hand-stitched, fresh-laid,
White sheet, green jade,
Soft light, midnight,
Frostbite.