Salvage

gus stillsgus stills Posts: 366
edited March 2007 in Poetry, Prose, Music & Art
salvage my drink
let it play wetly across
my unsaved lips

drowning my mind
the way the sky opens for
closed eyes, staring

into some abyss,
some greater meaning that I
cannot understand.

the first time I was
drunk I smiled out of fear.
I think I knew then

what was in store
for me, what I might find
hiding in red swirls,

currents of bitter
bliss that felt so right, to me,
my words wild and dead.

--though not dead in
the way you think of one
rotting peacefully—

no, I don’t mean that,
rather I think it’s a dying—
a slow unweaving,

a waking cessation,
shearing of connection,
a cutting apart.

but even in that
once I start I cannot stop,
leave it behind.

they say it’s a
downward spiral, a cliché,
to my young mind.

to me, it is a
process, a coming to grips
with lines, borders,

an image I run
from— or perhaps it is just
life’s terrible face

leering with hate,
seen through water’s surface
as her hands choke down.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • justamjustam Posts: 21,410
    Wow. This one is vivid.
    &&&&&&&&&&&&&&
  • gus stillsgus stills Posts: 366
    thanks. i was playing around with using haiku stanzas, which is tougher by far than i expected. but it does force you to be economic with your words. kinda fun.
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