Her panting
Wheezing

Eyes, a second lid of Vaseline
Mouth gaping open

As if to scream out but
Nothing

Take your turn to clasp
For the last time

A last exhale
White as clean linen

My shadow has departed
A dim luminescence has not the power to prevail
So casts my follower to the depths
To wallow in ineffable sorrow
Where heartache mutates to anguish, to scourge, to death
And lucidity has no foothold
And light, no admirer

Caught in your thicket of embellished verse
Trite but resolute
Efforts to crack the indestructible  

Here you say:
Willowy white Lily-of-the-Valley
Softly flowing waves of ecstasy
Delights a recessed heart
And resurrects the willful soul

I say:
No one knows the heart of one
Cast onward towards the billowy grey
Destined to revive
My vain attempts at life

Glistening crowds shuffle in detached cadence
Sweating long necks on a production conveyer
The boardwalk
Pungent saltwater and fried dough coalesce
Ocean meets carnival

Teen screams and seagull shrieks
A multitude of color variation
Red to black
A scent of Coppertone and Noxzema
To ease the pain of the vain and pale

Summer at Happy Hampton Beach
Arcade upon arcade
Clinking bells and whirly sounds
“You're a Winner!”, the mechanical voice screams
Summer fades as do the summer flings, until next year

How is it that I am floundering on a raging sea?
With waters as smooth as the limbs of Daphne
The only occupant tossed to-and-fro
The others, still as corpse

I have placed myself in such peril
Trusting in my own sly counsel
Navigating a path, pointless and interminable
A fool with an appetite for defeat

Am I to believe the barn swallow,
And build a home of mud instead of dreams?
Tangible, instead of that which is without form
I choose the dream and its glorious deception

It was just a game
We played at night
Just before the dream world
Spell a word on our backs

When you drew an "I"
I said, “I love you”
You said, “Good guess”
My turn

I drew an "I"
You said, “I love you”
I said, “Good guess, but no”
I have to leave

That was twenty years ago
I still remember that
It’s a game I don’t play anymore
I would never get beyond “I”

His hard eyes stared me down
The remnant of a smile
Now a distant memory
It’s funny how the eyes can relate hatred

Out of nothing came a blow
It made me see stars-for how long?
I can’t count but I’m a **** good smell sensor
What I did to deserve that smack, I may never know

I miss my friends from that place
I don’t know what they call it but I remember its smells
*****, ****, fear, and death
Why did I have to go home with this guy?

It started as soon as I got to his digs
Couldn’t hold it
There were others here; I could smell them
But they are gone

I used to remember everything
Now it’s a blur
Head smacks all the time
I hate the stars

What a fool
He took me outside and unlatched the spike collar
Took off, full speed
Not looking back, gonna find another pack