The seven day prayer candle burned out
seven days ago, and the twisted blinds

are held together with chopsticks and moving tape
after snapping in an unresolved haunting.

The nights enter like gemstones and exit like rabbits.

Truth sequestered from skin; I get a haircut
instead of another tattoo.

While shaving my neck with a straight razor,
the bald Albanian barber asks me:

"Which is scarier: people or mirrors?"

Before I could reply he shook his head:

“Trick question. They are the same thing.”

Walking home, I tore up the if-I-die note I had hidden

in my back pocket, and taught the pieces to dance
to the silence of buckshot screaming into a black hole.

The choreography was as patient as pregnant pauses
breathing into paper bags.

To the neighbors, smoking cigarettes on their stoops,
the shredded paper just looked like litter.