pugio

trembling jaw

trembling

chewing food's memory

remembering

empty candlesticks

sit loudly on this table

the wicks and wax

demand silence in their drawer

stomach turning

from last week's rancid meal

yet this mouth waits open

famine and nausea congeal

frigid hands

forceps to a cadaver

reach out, pleading

empty air absorbs

these outstretched

grasps of needing

palms, fingers,

loins of lust

wilt in the midnight breeze

yearning

 for embrace

as such

only the coroner sees

mineral salt in the water

  billows with blood

the faucets open

flesh forfeits

still as a pile of mud

shell shocked eyes slowly,

oh-so-slowly, blink

the war front is the cortex

the blitzkrieg is to think

for every future kiss

and every foreign moan,

for every nostalgic tear

and every step back home:

I curse the Fates

and kill the Gods

in vain and virtue

how could you do this?

to adore her

I must see this horror

o Calpurnia

you are also my Brutus

Reviews

[Fabian G. Franklin]

Life and death and loneliness and comfort are all but illusions of a grander scheme. There is no death in true love or heartbreak. But there is always heartbreak in unfulfilled expectation and death in transient emotion. I like what Thoreau said about light dancing on the water of the pond. He said it was the same light which caused his beans to grow. He said he wished he could have remembered that because it was not the same light in which he hoed the beans. (But actually, it was.)

[Dalton]

That's very interesting what Thoreau said about the light.
I revisited your words, and understand them now on a deeper level, particularly regarding your idea on 'illusions of a grander scheme'.
Thank you Fabian. I very much appreciate your time and sound opinion.
Dalton

[jacob erin-cilberto]

love can kill....the ides of march warn...did they warn of unrequited love?
of the candles burning out and the food growing cold and old and spoiled because she didn't show up...
but we eat our sorrow and it gets us sick with regrets.

j.

[Dalton]

Thank you for your adept insight. I especially like your Shakespeare reference.
Your reviews are always very appreciated Jacob.
Dalton