all convalescent on the noontide
crept blithely past the moor
you couldn't say i haven't survived
but I'm arguably not alive anymore

and here the focal point the address says
return to me, i miss you still
and i laugh i wrench i'm guilty
if the hill don't die on me then i will

coarsely i size the defect
hoarsely i voice concern
perversely i still affect
to never leave to never return

it's an animated skeleton
sunk cheek long week to bear
and the days fell apart like a newspaper
full of rain so untamed so delicate

and you clasped your hands together
a well maintained insulated purse
and i thought 'i hope this don't last forever'
and i said 'who knew grief could be so well rehearsed'

and the silver headed one engaged like a telephone
asked how i was, wished i were worse
and then returned to his replacement for filing
mixers sipped astringent and liquor glugged terse

and I took a train at the end of it all
several hours coat wrapped near-warm
and I arrived with less than I left with
and I left with nearly nothing at all

and the pier called out monstrously
and stone cut as i retreat my bare foot
it cut a sentence as if to say demonstrably
'you can't put a price on things that hurt'

on this seaside expedition
fingers ran the cool glass spiderweb
thought it might teach me a lesson
thought it might bless me instead

and something borrowed something new
something hollowed something gone
it's a photograph of a photograph
and its looking pretty torn

so i rescind the cordial invite
i'm sorry i'll be cleaning up my nest
and sallow the wood that the gleam bites
and tired the fire left in my chest