Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Prickly

I have decided he can’t help it. The sickness brings it. 

The prickliness corrals inside the mouth, along the rows 
of teeth--a bitter saliva he must spit out.  
It is his voice, his mouth, yes but misery makes 
a good impersonator.  It stalks, it thins, it frays,
it twists the soul from muscle and bone. 
It moves without heart through its long dogged 
digging in the bowels, both claws soaked with
what flows there, until the nerves, until
the soul itself pulls away from that entire 
sagging beast. 
All this to add a bit more time to life. 

And all the while the evil sickness waits. 

You can hear it swallow with anticipation.