I Cannot Remember

I cannot remember

The last time I cried;

Fingers scraped open by jagged

Stone, mixing crimson tears with the dusty

Cliffside, as the trail of thick blood trickles down:

An apple tree, ripe with fruit – their silent mockery

Shuffles the leaves and branches as their flesh rots

And decays and worms gnaw and chew

Into the depths of their soul. But they polish

Their bright ruby coats and hang on

To the tender stems for dear life,

Terrified of falling.

I cannot remember

The last time I smiled;

Under the constant glare

Of a million stars, the lone wolf

Devours the flesh and bone, ravages the heart

And liver until chalk-white splinters seizes

His throat, but he inhales and gulps and swallows

Until merely the blood-stained grass

Recalls the poor lamb’s baa –

He can’t be seen! Squeezing his ribs

And shriveling his skin

As if he had not eaten for a thousand years.

I cannot remember

The last time I lived;

The jet-black feathers of the blasted crow

Sprinkled inside the chicken pen. The audacity

Of that hellish blackbird, clucking and pecking

The dry, mucky soil, looking to burn

And ignite, to be reborn as a phoenix

In blazing fire – forever afraid of the Golden Arch,

Disappearing into the fiery sunset. Yet he will never

Wear a flaming coat or an auric tail –

Already forgetting how to fly.