A Switchback's Rest

the early-buried have plenty left
while glee goes into dormancy
boredom creeps with slow fingers deft
droops our lids and makes us sleepy
life goes on with endless deaths
as the flavor drains completely
if fame and wealth have too much heft
live between cracks discreetly



we snap up the parts like pick up sticks
here they come down now, raining in bits!
a horror happened above us it seems
another mass shooting by one angry teen?
well no matter they're always up to something up there:
Each bloodbath brings new bones to decorate our lair!



When devils delight on the daydreams
we'll be too busy to begin
so set a million angels to dancing
we'll bowl them over like so many pins.
We're sharpening our edges now
know this fight nobody wins...
except for good old Sister Death:
Let's greet her polished grin.




we remain a speck of grit
ten of twelve parts arsenic
our blood don't clot
it sparks and spits
like lightning arcs
they fixed us with
sharp teeth bone talons
these claws can rip
that's why we paint our fingertips
sleep: Noise don't mean a thing
close your ears to others' screams




agape this wide-maw'd whale
is a miscible traverse and rappel
three of nine times we make it well
and on six we bring our hell
we assault these edifices like salty foam
lay siege on steepled onion domes
this life will not be monochrome
a slash of green suits every home



o happy days are lambs to slaughter
empires are being rearranged
if we weren't part kraken's daughter
we might think it strange
everyone still has such hope!
we laugh as if deranged
their eyes all glaze like happy otters
—or cattle on the range



what a perfect oubliette!
a crevasse beneath snowy crust
the walls are frozen slick and wet
this one's fate starves in the dusk!
a broken neck would be quicker yet
but he'll be bones before he's dust.



in other words on other knives
we peer into his sightless eyes
we pull his leash and hear him croak
smiling at our little joke
this whisper-man mumbles of time
and stumbles down the steep incline



keeping our ears up in the loury gloom
we sniff and screw up our snout
as we scour this tenement from room to room
we worry they've all gotten out
silent and quick we bring certain doom
and if we can't find them we'll pout