Fazed

I am sorry,
I am slipping

Do not take my silence
Correction: Do not take my silence amiss
Do not take anything for granted

Do not mind me

as your eyes fuse
with the desert sun
far away.

Winter has come
with a vengeance,
freezing my laughter.

The blizzard has turned me brittle
and I write myself out
till I go blank
beneath the black sky.

Husk

A mouth
twisted by pain
curls around its lies,
cut lips bleed
reassurance.

Experience
shutters the iris
with wit,
keeping in
the shadows.

Chitinous propriety
holds the frame.
Inner flame sunk
onto itself,
growing cold.

Realistically...

Masked
vulnerability
lightly dances
round the truth
and grimly closed
minds and eyes
laugh at romance
as cowardly pragmatism
hides behind
impracticalities.

Only now and then
a cruel spasm.

Inside

Hot tears stab
paper eyelids
and slash them
into tatters -
acrid avantgarde
heralding
the conflagration
in her ribcage prison.

An inmate torn
by unheard screams
breaks open
in agony
beneath her own smiles.
Hopes congeal
in the blue depths
of glacier shadows.