Monday, March 21, 2011

alkali soil & raw flesh
















Encased 'neath skeleton chalk rock,
crooked with crags pressing into my sides
gnawing jagged scars deep in naked skin
but I’m comforted by the pain and then
molasses warmth creeps into my muscles
legs at first, then trunk and arms
the numbness seeps, seducing with charms
and I lose the memory of living in a body,
I’m a packed up heap in a dried-out hole
no moisture here to tickle my lips
nor to guzzle, chug, even halfheartedly sip
parched dusty desert terrain squeezing
out memory, sense and mission to maintain.

Alkali soil and raw flesh in chemical collision-
I reach out to stretch with arms restrained
but I only eke a fraction of an inch
before my body starts to jar, spasm and wrench
then sags, slumps and gives way to nature,
a sacrifice to the noonday sun
and the hungry whimsy of nighttime creatures.

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