this dead man’s face
lilt & graying
breaks like waves
of wet kisses
& absence.
soiled & so broken
bound in skin so thin
felled, not fallen
for just one-last
alabaster night.
& we homeless kings
absolute rulers
of sewn lips,
glued eyelids,
tend columns of fallow meaning
reliable as old-birth-hips.
till grey skin
lilt & light,
bleached charcoal bone,
scoured white,
darkens blood red
& cowers
before the bringing.
i.m. ruzz (2004 | original author date, unknown)
