Conflagration
This insatiable passion
unsatisfied still
or ignored, better word,
Lovers claim age indifference
and sharpest reasoning the
distance
for the calm cool
cold absence
of touch hungry still
a beast with eyes
greedy eyes and small teeth
and will
drive through like loneliness
through open windows
into empty space place for pacing
and annoying the complacent tenants beneath.
Unwinding form buck
the head rewind
to the tundra of sheets cross the bed.
Abject people lie
object the lines
left designs where bodies lay
objects once warm sculpture in sleep.
Alone once more
beneath the blankets
reflecting grief.
To predict the lateness of your arrival,
arrogance to think
you'd come at all
chew a bit and go through paces
sort spindle and mutilate
what remains of late postcards
from there
wherever how picturesque
how typic the still hour new to itself alone
my solid self
to vague faces imagined in air of air
I swallow whole bottles of bitterness
and spit like a wet candle
angry hold on life
light of the small tallow flame
intimidation
imitation of consuming flames.