yawning maw

-

you have yet to speak a single word

i watch you from across the parquet floor

watching that blade slip out of your boots

you have yet to slip a single sound

the floorboards open under foot

the dark days have you radiant

the dark nights have you malignant

-

have you had something to drink tonight?

you sleep like a babe in ships tied soundly offshore

i sleep in barnacles spread out under your floor

i hold together this gaping maw with hair-fine fibres

i hold together your heart with nothing more than silk

-

and you would, could probably die from this

my minute gun is steady at my calf

you are praying like a southern half angel

you are praying with your head held over the toilet

i am sick, i am tired, you are praying, i expired

you have yet to stigmatize something worth mentioning

you have yet to darkly darken something worth lightening

-

you have had too much to drink tonight, and you are lonely

i straighten those tangled legs under the damned petticoats

you sleep on a bed of curry-cut coral

i sleep on ocean floors made out of silty sand

i hold together this yawning maw with chains and china

i hold together your heart with nothing more than nothing

-

and nothing more than nothing ain't nothing at all