Insipid ingurgitating
And it never hurt
I needed that it was never a chore or pain worth memory.

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

But fearless when it's nightime
dragging the corpse of my voice by the knot in that bag of bones
You've been throwing like dice
That never play

Always with a sharp tongue
a new plan and borrowed bad words
You'll find all that back for you waiting
While you're reaping

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

Coddle me
Laissez-faire
Installment plan living
Leaking vitality
unused limbs no longer tools
Of expression

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

Leave my voice untouched by the wind from your acid lungs
Return to your wilderness
Refuge is yours only there