Insistent upon raised
hands, smoky glasses, drizzled
shards of affection every
now and again when it's
convenient to pipe in the
clean stuff from upstairs

is it diffi-
cult for the benefit of a
nonmaterial bruising, all
greens and gray-colored finger-
tips from a waiting man, you
"never jump where the
bottom rises to meet you", never
drink a road down before you
guess its name to be

satisfied is an abomi-
nation without progressi-
on the path to stagnant waters where
only the living float, belly-
up like dollar bills