night wraps itself
around my chest
a silken suffocation
in bands of sinuous
velvety nothingness
my heartbeat quickens
as my lungs strain
to draw the humid air
into starving lungs

it’s the words
always with the goddamned words
drumming incessantly
tapping out rhythms
along with bthe cracks
running across my placid
insecurities as i
lay bound and gagged
choking on the right things
to say when every one
of those bastardly words
lodged beneath my
implaccable epiglottis

and the night smothers
mercurial quicksand
lapping at a halfnapping
mind in the midst of
lavender flashing intrusions
sending kisses in
pained whispers into the
silent disinterest of
the ceiling hovering
somewhere too far for
a semblance of comfort
yet just close enough to
form the lid of this box

a short circuit sending
sparks to catch the
dreamdander tufts aflame
with a cold fire that leaves
hoarfrost laden sorrows
to decorate the exhaustion
of a fool struggling with
self imposed confinement
in the silence between
her heartblossom crescendo
and my aria of clustered need