i can feel
the talons gripping
hard around
my flailing heart
i want to fight
to silence the voice
seductively whispering
saline sorrows
i am weak
collapsing inward
as the waves batter me
with incessant static

happiness is
back masked along the ridge
of scars crisscrossing
my itching stumps
silver bells coated in
dripping pitch
as the clapper
clangs in off key wailing
serpents in the tall grass
tasting the breeze
sensing heat signatures
lashing blindly

i call out
into the oppression of light
wound tightly
in a fallacy of dream
rusted nails drag
tetanus in bloody furrows
down sandpaper skin
salting the earth with indignation
dandelions in
asphalt delirium as
the sun sighs in a
saturation of melancholia