Epitaph

Epitaph

My words were ringed by patience
and they died,
like cells cut out and studied
under light.
Divorced from celebration,
my life bleeds,
little by little, slice by slice
for someone else's purpose.

Compromise to some is suicide to me.
One more year of money
and charades
is one more year uprooted from the land,
the fibre of my strength
torn up and lying dry upon a slab
of cold concrete.

Cities, salaries, bankers' smiles,
glossy lies and bloated lunches
close over my mouth that
should be screaming seed.

Alas, the powers escape me.
The net is full of holes
that only time can mend;
waiting, my life leaks through.

The big hand is on zero,
But my heart thumps on,
Taking me down to the dark tide
going out.
Come. Walk with me awhile
before we blend with irresistible sea.
What else is there but love
to understand
being a single grain of common sand?