Death Wears a Scarf

Drag yourself out of bed,

Skin slick with sweat sticks to sheets,

Hair thick with dreams wet with grease,

Do the dance of impertinent waiting,

The blood of the shower turns slowly to life.

-

Fleece, cotton, polyester fibers,

Synthetic, natural, wash only in cold water-

Lint is inevitable, wrinkles inevitable,

Laundry day uninvited, life is uninvited.

Douse yourself in rags and drape yourself in merlot.

-

Don your finest cashmere.

Ice winds chill bones and rattle cages,

Breaks boughs, and battles stages-

Brisk and gray, trapped in a snow globe,

Teetering on the edge- soon a phantasm, phantom-

a passed phase, gravity a phage-

(-admonish physics, perish the thought...)

-

Old brick walls castle weakened kings,

Defenses down and drawbridges broken-

Porous textures, peeled paint, age-warped windows,

Growing closer, obligations drawing nearer,

The end is nigh and already but forgotten.

-

No quickened pace, breath or heart rate,

No words or eyes that betray your face,

There just for a moment, and that's all it takes.

Back to the other life, the one that lies in the waiting-

Outside, the air is crisp- the weather is changing.

-

Take a trip down memory's rotted avenue,

Gentrified with catch-phrases and reinforced structures,

Things you ought to think plastered and painted,

Over things that you'd rather forget-

(Make a stop at the panadería- bread, sugared- coffee, instant.)

-

Home again, empty but filled with attempts,

To make the space seem vibrant,

Without any life.