I am your shadow. I am yo|r shadow. I$a! y%|| @_a/o|+
Blacked out beneath
you're leaving again? To go where? To see whom?
There was a man about
a horse, I was not on board
and brought the money anyway.
A scratch beneath
fur tired out on its own.
You will never know,
looking down at the petals of a flower
squishing itself
into a jarrow cheeked face
to open its mouth and take
all of the fingers off your hand
like penny tickets numbered
and your ears ringing tolls
as they separate and
skin splits and
musculature unravels and
numb blood runs like ink
into the whole,
eyes rolled forward.
Screaming, jaw pressed to coffee table top.
Or you will
beneath past lives,
I hope each time
I hear my name
shouted to me and find
nothing close enough to know me,
let alone our names,
you hear it too
and hear
our eyelashes touch eyebrow
with more clarity than
a bell in a tower knocking at your door
before you leave again
while I sit
and breath in lilac
in the shade of your branches.
Protect. Yourself. I will be
on my haunches, cooling.
