We are elegiac.

We are elegiac.

I will know nothing of it

Stumbling in the dark

The filth of a broken life

Loose tongues

Looser bowels

Cognitive incontinence

The blind man’s ditch

The last dregs of life

Swept along

Tearing at the memory

Jumbling it all up

With muck and vomit.

The grumble of rot

From the mourners

The pious bleeders

Until they too go.

She held my hand

So very small

Her fingers curled about my thumb

She is grown

Into a woman

The very best of me

She said she would never leave

I guess she never did.

The blaze of the sun

Is a sorry sight

From the muddied floor

The ruin of the many

With a foolish dream

That becomes a nightmare.

The sickness of life

Is in its mundanity.

Absence of risk

Is fraught with danger

The stench of horror

Is in the ease

With which life

Is sold short.

I blundered

Into a cul-de-sac

There is never any coming back

Stagger on

Fall face down

Swallow pride

As easily as ditch water.

Drink to me only with thine eyes

The slightest touch

Will disturb the dust.

Let me be

I am at home now

Among the dead men.

I know their names

We all end up together

Cheek by jowl

Head to toe

Biodegradable.

I will always be

Where you can find me

Let my fingers go

I am but a hand’s breadth away.