Long Gone

It was year nothing, the zeros 
pointed to O and it comprised 
days and pain, the light 
glancing refracting eyes 
and the bones, the bones 
broken and knitting pain 
bud in the head and 
no word, no word of you 
who were long gone and I 
left standing my support 
crutches and a handle, the 
painful dishes, the 
inexorable food, the standing 
impossible and no good 
to come all gone behind into 
lanes of summer, two-man- 
hunt and cemetary landmarks 
looked down on my home 
amid tall grasses white 
gravestones.  I bore it 
unwell and unvisited, the 
plastic shopping kept me 
alive and the unknowing 
grins of friends, the hollow 
wakeful nights of 
dissociation and I couldn't 
turn over, hours on my back 
grimacing, the grinding 
mind asking, asking 
and no voice spoke the 
words to paper the day, to 
wall the silence, take me 
away.

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