Unwelcome Ascension

I died so many days ago—

Choking, spluttering, watching each star go out.

Abyss—a month long absinthe sip, bringer of damnation and cognition slow:

Why here, why now, why from whatever unknown twilight hurled about?

I snort, lungs refuse, exhaling what little I know.

Each step a macabre foothold, each sight an idiot blur,

I shamble forth, guided by the Moon, through rough iron bars.

Ah, but neurons are not so fetid, dawdling nerves accelerate! Memory of her

With cruel muse my halo, riding my sunken face—singing of what was ours—

Reawakened senses sniff odors of betrayal—the ancestral mansion provides a stir.

I vanish before a night watchman into the fog of the courtyard;

Oh, he’ll welcome the belief of my existence as mirage.

Perfectly, I find the mat-eclipsed key, cued on by the dirge of a river barge,

Stalking into my old home—our old home—neglected nerves provide a sensate barrage.

Anxieties unknown since the fatal dagger wound surface, looming large.

And there they are! Her and her lover fair—I linger, rank flesh quivering,

Squeaking carelessly the door opens, my conspirators awaken in fright.

Grasping his spasming chest on seeing my ghoulish form, consigned to oblivion—Gibbering, Frowning.

My ex-lady stares, vaguely whispers my name, not knowing how—it can’t be right!

Atrophied jaws force out a grin—rotting talons seize her snowy neck—she’s drowning.

Six Minutes later

I collapse for the last time upon fresh shells rendered like I--out of life, out of light.