ALONE

A woman
Left to die
In her own excrement;
Winter
Creeping
Between fate’s
Malignant
Metal walls.
Hope
Rests
Invisible.
Rain
Clatters,
And
Wailing
Wind
Whisks
Stripped curtains skywards.
Shallow breath
Clouds
The crackling air,
And
Blackened nails
Glance
Through greying,
Rat tailed hair.
Night’s
Frozen
Fingers
Grip her heart,
And artery’s
Twisted flow
Fails.
A sigh
Rattles in the dark
Between blueing lips
As still
As a painted ocean.
A spider
Maps her life
Across
Her leathering face,
And Aunt Nan’s future
Leaves
This desperate world
A space.

SM 2012