With cold, hard confidence like a fly survives,
I read this morning paper,
but my jealously springs to life,
and the pompous thrust of my wings only spreads the poison.
I felt that beautiful shudder
of forgotten dreams whisk my heart above my hair,
with an aftershock that welled up in my bones,
betraying my feelings, it had never left me.
"Turn over my dear so I may look upon your face,"
but my eyes are stiff and my mind is hewn,
a gaze that is as straight as a measuring rod and wholly alien,
and thoughts that only read and never write,
oh the fight they will put up this evening,
like contact plates that come together under violence.
She sees me and a harsh word knocks the wind out of me,
a beckoning call eats my rest until I am lying on a ledge,
exposed to water and falling leaves,
and all the while my mind proves unable to branch out.
