it’s a dead moment
fly-blown and rancid
that slip
into a razorblade reality
pawing at the dark for a lover no longer there

it’s a blind man’s terror in a canyon
no touch to guide you
it’s a deep ocean drowning
no surface
only four sides of oblivion
and darkness seeping into lungs

it’s a wakeless nightmare
fruitless hope for dawn

i have reeled into love an instant too late
clawing the incorporeal ghost man he was
hands wet from the mist of his body
his memory under my fingernails