Ecstatic in the sea breeze, a magnanimous moment of interloper pride ******* the day. Uncoil—my heart, my chin, my unglamorous abstinence enforced by fear. This is no lapse, but fury and fortitude forging me in the crucible of love. Yet again I am up against it— the stage of floating eyes and overcooked feelings pawing at my attention like squids in a pool. Ink and jelly in a room temperature soup swirling and sloshing under the authority of a rented room. By gods, this time I’ll make it work— plant leaves and blunderbusses leaning against teal paint, the sun really is on a fishhook. Stand apart from me then and judge the waters for what they are— a storm too small to surface in a sky too big to swallow. I’m sweating in it and the alarm clock is going off. bleet bleet bleet Too deep to turn back. Too tired to go on. This is where the end begins, in the middle of it with no ground at all.