beside you - presently,
as if the common cold
locked long, lean arms
soaking you in the
feverish sweat and
slobber of seasonal sick.
Step-by-stumble, a cough
disguises humorless jokes:
Quipping about a hanged man
in the throws of provincial repentance?
Bah! If only you suffered
sustained insufferability
might you appreciate the
scarcity of taste-
and good humor!
The feet fighting for
solid ground, the stress
and neck fractures,
the lungs, the brain,
the swaying in still night
This is how to picture grief.
A suitable execution fit to
the perpetrator of the heinous
crime of extinguishing your
own cool flame...
that quickly burnt out.
In continuation,
the strangeness lapsed
and staggered about,
an omen for dim-witted
delinquents and we,
so above such characters.
I and I alone
exclude the u,
leaving yo to contend
with all things, and
no I to lean on.
