In this room...
It's blistered cardboard walls
And a monotonous bulb
Guttering above me
Like a flickering 60 watt sun
That forgot how to shine
Surrounded by the scent
Of stale cigarettes
And the scattered remnants of nightmares
Footsteps outside my door
Disembodied fragments of men
Scurrying down infinite corridors of silence
Leaning out my window
Into the sprawling urban night
The wafting bouquet of garbage
And the relentless symphony
Of sirens and screams
The hooker on the corner
Pacing her purgatory of sidewalks
With absent feline grace
I light my last cigarette
Burning my throat and stomach
Blowing smoke rings of oblivion
Towards the bulging cracked ceiling
Scrawling desperate verse
To a love in a far distant place
Wondering if she'll ever reach me
Amidst this wreckage and ruin.
One day they'll find me
My silent pen in stigmata death grip
With nothing but tattered notebooks
And scattered throwaways
To mark my earthly sojourn.