i am dreaming of
the furthest room down the hall,
the slight fall of the chest as someone sighs deeply

the watery gaze that sees nothing
save dull and diffused light

of reasons that have the stink of rationalization on them

of slight couched in invitation
to yesterday's cancelled reservation
for the chance to revisit the ultimatum
where live words held in the mouth
words now sentenced to life
for murders never said

of the memory of tiny actions
for the sake of their intended

of small bright wings painted with the faces of children laughing
that flutter in what appears to be aimless flight yet always alighting with precision on the nectarless flowers
in their artificial meadow
of sleep without dreams or waking

battle scarred shocked and weary
after a solid month of them
non-stop noise the cannon carry
cannon carry them
carry until the trenches fill
with brother's blood soak the hill
with death dis-ease and disentery

the hero's task at length is laid
yet insanity instantly draws his pay
in far off looks and broken gaze
it be death alone
death alone that saves
legion eyes focused far away
as millions board the ferry

infinite naivete;
its innocence
the ancient bloodsnake craves
blind as it ingurgitates
its own dark hind yet hesitates
in fleeting dawning awareness bites
infinite in rav'nous appetite
sating only lust and what remains
hell's own night
joy's light's bane

for apathy and avarice
it's deception's pillow and its grace
death's own mask; its hidden face mercurial and at once chimeric
camouflage concealing
its concealment a passive weapon
chameleon quite as colorful
and as so quite as perfect

a last murderous salvo comes
dawn a fiery hour too early by one
in it's childishly entitled insistance
as we slough off our own skins
and eat kippers with them
from dented tins
our elegiac last breakfasts

and alas again forgetting everything
of nothing's own self-importance
we burn and die in last morning's light
as the band of gathered idiots bind
a consensual last query to send into the vast distance

we would give in to this abhorrence without resistance?