27 january 2021
forlorn cities on my surface
i've got this repository of slanted worlds
i never finished, never lived in,
like a house either after
a nuclear blast, with no carbon shadow,
or something more tame-attics and tapestries
with no trace of dust
kept clean and tidy by the absence of any
intrusion, interest, introspection
these forlorn cities that have a name
and a place on the map
but no one goes there anymore
it's almost like they're radioactive
or contagious, or the crumbling architecture
is hazardous. for dust is the remainder,
the mark, the ambience of life and shedding
memories and molting growth
these forgotten cities
forbidden cities
skyline sharp against my skin, prickling
all those who embrace me
my prohibitions and inhibitions have turned
this into a ghost town
built for ghosts, perhaps,
but even they do not come
i wish you could see my cursor go back and forth erasing words and writing them again and the pauses between my movements the hesitation that i think can be seen in how i write
leaden feet climbing cloudy steps, i might end up rising, soaring, threatening the night