Giving up

Strong, weak, sylvan, wrong –
thought of cigarette hovers in languid threat, a
glass, a sugar-meal in out down up -
all things to make shadows lift, and
feed the seed of gum-fungus in your
splinters, glassy and rot, talking to you through
ashen teeth that make each thing
that passes their way little fingers of decay

Holding all things at bay – the method
and the medium actors of decay, while
a minute, little, decides to form into
acid spray, glacier splay, long
delay, two play, gainsay, dismay

You walk in two directions now – one to the
gentle echo of repetition and familiar, crunch of
lighting and deep inward, little memories of
coffee in warm places, and one to
two-way where the walls echo
on what was said and who felt what
and were you there and, no, you reach
for another and light it in the usual way –
acid spray, glacier splay, long
delay, two play, gainsay, dismay