Insipid ingurgitating
it never hurt
I needed that it was never pain worthy memories

mine are
Cheap
like a gew-gaw,
Shiny and strong like a dark horse
lathered in the sun
Shallow as a caliche grave

you are fearless when it's nighttime
dragging the corpse of my voice
by the knot in that bag of bones
You've been throwing around
like dice
That never play fairly

Always with a sharp tongue
a new plan and borrowed bad words
You'll find all that back for you awaiting the threshing
While here you reap

I have that
The narrows have been sounded
The depth plumbed
and only by the skin of my teeth
Did I slip from that
shallow grounding.

No!
Coddle me,
Laissez-faire
Installment plan living,
while leaking vitality
my unused limbs
become no longer
tools
of expression
but of badly pretended
emotion


Madame caterpillar,
Your butterfly brilliance
is now
patina still life,
Sepia celluloid memory clips
from some
Dark cutting room floor
of your own imaginings.

wicked worded one,
Leave my voice untouched
by the wind from your acid lungs
Return to your wilderness
Refuge is yours only there.