How long have I been in this grim palace?
Who are all these people checking in, never out?
I’m choking on ashen dust of the undead…
Nondescript particles rumble past me
crashing down like Midwestern hail
thousands of swerving, cellophane atoms
hiding the graying of free will
fuzzing up clarity that once was.
So bored with this indoor-outdoor carpet!
Life’s stains cover up misbegotten memories
but then there is plenty of hand sanitizer.
Faceless sufferers collapse akimbo in corners
screaming out silently hoping for a cure.
I still clutch graying choices of free will
bones of damn subjunctives, and dusts of doubt.
I’m just a pulverized relic on my personal altar.
I sit watching home movies in my mind
escaping into silken milkweed threads.
The usual cup of MY*T*FINE arrives
with protein shake hydration for clear thinking.
Perhaps they are trying to convince me
I’m where I should be…just biding time
until this fragile dust no longer protects me
from erasures of hard-fought memories.
What was I just saying?…..