with disfocused eyes i watched you spill secrets

they ooze out from under your listerine breath

                            the world is not your nutshell, it is mine, i have stolen

a clean veneer sits unfit on your oil

you said i was crazy

and i smile in soft circles

                    it and you cannot have it back, you cannot! i

traced wide and wide on tattered bedspreads

spasmatic, you said

and my hands danced the words

and my laughter was dis. jointed, figured embodied

                want to feeeeeeel you stretch you touch you, touch me?  you won't of course,

my skin is gray and it rises draped on thin arms, catch the sky

let me play a bit longer

stop

stop! i can't catch you

      hold my hand. i won't hurt you i promise, i just

your shadows elude my grasp, and i can't stop these tears

these wails from rising in smoke rings from my blackened lungs

                           want to play, pretty please? it's a game, don't you see?  let's

you slip out of my box

slide the keys into their locks

                                   go round the prickly pear, the prickly pear, pop!

and shall see me nevermore, nevermore...