Lifetime

Like stark nib’s snubs on paper,

you passed me by at exactly the time that

I passed you by. Pittance for your words was

your reeking polemic, as you scribed lines

on the soles of my feet. The quill passed calf

and cuff, soon covered my body and spoke on my

tongues like I’ve never spoken. I saved a thought

in those odd hours. We agreed:

enough’s enough … Now, to name the great forgotten would be

to diminish the great remembered.

But who deserves such tardy harassment

but the great.

Like the grim dimension of some recollected slough

or the even and collective precinct’s filthy invasion.

Grey and coalesce, the mismatched mounds.

Tunnels beneath so smoke hangs like laces

to tickle the lifeless below;

frolic with fickle below.

It was a grand idea that flickered in the blaze,

that licked into consumption,

so could only flutter to the four winds,

untraceable, forgotten. Gone.