indistinct mutterings from the other side of the veil, frail, stale and lost under the stove, kingdom of discarded spoons and lintball fantasies, gone the way of the slotted spatula and hope

captured, enraptured, fact into fiction, friction, mistakes in diction, restrictions, restricting, conradicting, evicting the childhood to make room for adult condominium desires

compartmentalized, dearly departed, uncharted, off the map and through the cupboard, freshly stocked pantries, those barely there panties, enchanting and unrelentingly objectified

tumbling across the mat, reduced to bone and fat, the sinewy forms of latter day rats, lurking and patrolling the alleyways, byways, and in and out of traps, engorged with cheese, whispered pleas

two ply, untold tries, softly murmured cries for help, a flare, a beacon, the deacon and the kindly old lady who lives down the way, the smell of fresh bread rising, enticing, yeasty surprises

the size of the sighs, no replies, in disguise, indistinguishable cardboard arrays of solar systemic denials, retrials, beguiles and lures them in, indebted then bedded, the secretly wedded

off balance, stumbling, bumbling, falling away, tossing, glossing and hidden from grace, retredding the paths of giants, no trace, replaced, distaste, disgraced, misplaced, spinning through vacuous space

singing and singeing, pinging and bingeing, orbits and obits, the tantalizing soft pits, quicksand and bayous, all while the jaw snaps, a relapse, encapsulating the malaise, a daze, out of phase

indifference, independence, unrelenting, unrepenting, dissenting, the scent of wildflowers and honey, unfunny, nose runny, drifting, sifting through the similarly displaced

the lost and found room, stacked with the discarded baubles of forgotten fancies, replacing the magic of youth with the pursuit of truth, justice and curds and whey, weighed, strained, and disdained

she smiled at me from across the room

time slowed as our eyes met

the torrential downpour of words slowed for a moment

frozen in midair around our heads

then it all sped back up and as the words fell with resounding thud onto the ground

i looked for her but she was gone

all that was left was the memory of her smile

and a tornado of thoughts that cut and tore like knives in the clear blue sky pinning me to the image of her smile burnt onto the ground beneath me