i. smoky fingers curl around the heart-beat
pulse-beat song-beat and wrench out the
bricks one at a time
the rasp of flesh latching on cement, the
grating grinding of stones lunging out, and
the scream as they fall in the dark rabid
waters
the building erodes in the fog
the building erodes in the storm
the building erodes like everything erodes
and my heart erodes with it and in it
and among it
ii. he has never known fear and that is why
he climbs up scales up cringes up the
never ending walls
that is why he clings to the bricks as they
are torn out and that is why he hopes that
he too will fall and
that is why he wants to erode because
erosion is the melting, the harsh corrosive
acid leaching away, erosion is the secret
to a long
and beautiful
and happy
and irony-drenched life
iii. gray mud spatters - no, it swallows - no
it consumes like a monster, a monster
with tendril claws and poisonous fangs,
and it eats you with a flick of its jaw - no,
it erodes
gray mud erodes in the twin way of the
world, gray mud is the thing that erodes
you and your love and your lover and it's
the thing that is eroded until one day it's
gone
and nothing
will ever
erode again
iv. he is covered in gray mud, and i am covered
in gray mud, and my skin is rebelling against
the cold slick slimy tingling creature that *****
the bruises away, but he welcomes it
he always welcomes everything more than i do
and maybe that's the reason
maybe that's the hidden reason
why the world is eroding