room, time & space

Cracked plaster ceiling

brooding, gloomy

over my position

in this empty room that's

tempting me to sin.

Wails of phantom sirens

slowly descend

and ring like the drops

of condensation off the windowpane

north of the dusty table.

Trace a finger in

the fine gray haze-

patterns and stars

and things not meant to fly

scraped raw in smut I

raise head and growl reply.

Fat humidity drops

spoil the dirty canvass

extinguishing my stars

with hushed and anguished plops

makeshift bed merely

receptacle for my rebellious

drunken head-

more satisfied to sit and watch

then save the ashen asterisks

now scorchmarks

pithy sorrows etched

indelibly on wood.

Window painted shut-

see only gray shadows

ingrained where visitors stood-

trail clumsy fingers on

sludgy table full of grime

that colors lungs and

souls filthy hues

and seethes of crime.

I scratch at cracked plaster

revealing however slight

through fingernail trails

resounding rays of starlight-

oh to pierce this dull abyss

to surge over tonight

the desolate precipice.