inhale deeply
the acrid smoke
clutch close
to sweet oblivion
falling farther
from the light
with every
painful exhalation

lost in this
maze of billowing
acerbic apparitions
my heart has become
no more than
a phantom organ
of rusted valves
crooning a
dirgeful farewell

a human
hand me down
kept captive
in exclusion
torturing
errant dreams
caught in the
silken cobwebs
of an empty tomb