powdered sugar o’er funeral cake

outburst of gooses
the skin’s reveal

i’m not local

to a where

i was
high-ly
as low as
i could go

look, linoleum prints
poor though they may be
scratched by naked branches
snag life to a tightly woven sky

our real eyes, inward
clumsily claw for light
half mast, submissive

in an undisclosed location
beneath seasonal depression
they do, they really fucking try

heavy pen, porcelain…fingers…
head in the V of her elbows
…the geese, remember…?
try to rise up…

she said,
why are you always so cold
and, just so you know
you don’t inhale
yea, i know

just trying to get to those jalepenos
so i can go home with a burning tongue
frost bitten heart, feels so similar, but worse

seeping, ashen waves
of slush steep the pores
of our crimson skin, stoic

i watched her huff white-out in the dark room
hmm, what? a lolly-gagging driftwood selfishness
left me lowly nonplussed, unflappable, disregarding

lest ye be judged
black roses bloom
if i stand up too fast

and now,
thieved anemic
our friendship
has blued
dead