and nothing - no - can touch you here. you need to know; you want to hear. lagoons of time - pearlescent- in all directions; omnipresent. we waste our tastes in saline haste to swallow something more than hate; to anchor all, to simulate; the weight of tears against the odds of breath and flesh. that safety net defies the length of sentiment, and even yet... you hold yourself in present tense to sweat, resent, repent. and so, you starve and fret. in the dead of night you petrify, resist the air that rents and gasp: what was that?