They lit
A thousand acre fire
To smoke out old dreams
That had
Buried themselves deeper
In the choke between ash seams

Writhing, fresh white skin
Came apart, bursting the arteries
Between the surface creature
And the blacker haunt named apathy

“Sleep away your desire
“Sleep away your misery
“Sleep away your vigour
“Sleep away your sympathy”

A dead seed in the pyre
A dead stare set to atrophy
A dead wish undelivered
In a lull of breathless harmony