in my beginning is my end
Word Count: 569
he swallowed all the lines up tight
they wound in back
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx back
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx back
curling dripping running lurid smokingxx into his head
in venoms and tongues and tastes unxxx their ticking
seen unheard of and unfathomed likexxx into place
all her little white lies, her nothings, hxxxinto space
er no ones, her chrysocollas, her fausxxx better left to
tites, her synesthetic staccato syncoxxxx misbegotten
pated heart chanting rot, rot, rotxxxxxxx vacancies
and he blinked out
all the brittle backwash from the morning before
in the morning after.
he breathed into his bones
out his ribs
through his smokestack back
he drew in all the stars with a single breath
and his spine rose with the unseen sun.
his body sighed
it cursed out a filigree of impotence
great gouts of impatience
furled in smoke.
he swallowed all the lines up tight
they wound in back
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx back
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx back
and he felt the way she cut his skinxxxxx into his eyes
the way it wound around her bentxxxxxx where they
blade, where she carved away thexxxxxx leapt into
sun in his mouth, the spirit in his vexxxx fiery phrases
ins six times over, six times soft, sixxxxxacrid tastes
x times inward, six times out, six tixxxxxof bleached
mes in harmony and six times withxxxxx nights and
out. her face a brandished smile.xxxxxxxbroken lies
but the memories scattered like wellwater glass.
his bones bit into the bedding
like a lover, unbidden
and he stretched, stretched himself apart, stretched himself
out
out
out
until his so-thin stomach
curved like a watch glass.
like a timepiece.
muscles muttered their banal objections.
they wrapped their abnormalities like rainwater rhymes.
they left their sullied calling cards over
his face
his hands
his neck
his chest
his back
his legs
without remorse
(for shame was a better mistress than he deserved)
he swallowed all the lines up tight
they wound in back
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx back
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx back
but there were stories to embedxxxxxxxx into his chest
and smokes unstacked that shexxxxxx xx where each
armed with diagnostic pipelinesxxxxxxxx ragged breath
she-not-she excised his breathsxxxxxxxxcoaxed in,
in that way she never practiced,xxxxxxxx coaxed out,
never preached, never swallowexxxxxxxx free of smoke
d a single syllable of her-not-herxxxx xxxand riveted
own sermon. but he asked forxxxxxxx xx circumstance.
he never respired like this before.
but his thoughts bled away
trailing their runnels
up
up
up
through the ceiling-stars
past the craggy fractures
of a fragile mind.
he ate through his own thoughts. intersected. infested.
he washed his bile out
until his so-thin stomach
curved like a watch glass.
like a timepiece.
he swallowed all the lines up tight
they wound in back
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx back
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx back
somewhere, somehow somewayxxxxxxxx into his mind
he felt his own decayxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx where all
sinking, spitting, sputtering, supxxxxxxxxhe found
inated and surreal. subtle. sublixxxxxxxxxbeyond his
me and serial. suspect and salloxxxxxxxx teeth
w and serious. splendid and stexxxxxxxxxwere holes
llar. he felt words and heard colxxxxxxxxxworn away
or and saw sounds tasting in hisxxxxxxxx by her sinner
circumspect throat. the world cxxxxxxxxx boots, by
ame apart. drowning in the undexxxxxxxxher ill-natured
rtow, he drank in the seawaterxxxxxxxxxxsurgeries.
and he blinked out
all the brittle backwash from the morning before
in the morning after.
and he breathed out
all the naked sorrow from the morning before
in the morning after
until his so-thin stomach
curved like a watch glass.
like a timepiece.
