057: Names

On the static shore

of a remote lagoon,

I had dinners in the dark

with the moon up high

and an empty plate

for those who live in starfields.

Distance, relative

when trapped in a cage of echoes,

wandering the streets

of the city of unbuilt houses;

still the silver screen whispers

in icepick tongues,

diminutive and demonic,

shards squatting

the path of imbalance,

while I kept replaying

sequences of near joy,

lodged in secret graves.

I stretched my mind's limbs

to touch the sun's mantle

from the bottom of the pit,

starving and solitary,

in kinship of the king,

with a mouthful of lead.

This war, ongoing and unanswered,

cruel yet incumbent,

never released me

into the freedom of wolves,

but taught me I'll never breathe

the air of heaven.