That morning, after the night before
As ev'r, nothing could remain the same
Little pieces of the rainbow were missing

As always, he stood and braced the chill
the wind that tore passed through
his body; withered fury of age
leaving impressions on the wall
behind him, a personal Hiroshima

With great care he cleaned up
locked the great knife in the cabinet
and washed the floors with raw soda

As ev'r the memories of her would
remain but nobody could see it
as ev'r the phone calls would cease and
the night would remain still

He took a flask of the heavy water he
had stored for events such as this

She paged through pages of her book
and picked up the receiver
dialled his number and listened to the
hum drum disconnection tone

a tear floating down her cheek
the sunlight grasping it and fracturing
it across the wall

*********************************************************************************

Corporeal Death
Nicholas Alexander

Curling fingers of vapour
         from a mouth held dry
Lips the colour of a crocodile's eye

Skin tortured by the persistence of sin
        stretched dormant,
        leaking evaporating
into the still still air
the night     the day     the night
the air remains still and dust hangs quietly
surrendering in suspension

switches corrode, become inoperable:
time bubbles: brown and metal.
A mast – a barrier lifted – let it all go:
the dreams, the habits and the terrible chains
attaching each to their own and the owned to the each
walking
        drifting
flying finishing
        dying

and new habits form, new habits and inert dreams
lulling about in a blue wave of forgetting
the bead of light rose upon the mast
during the night, when all was still
when the air disappeared
and the chill-demon-forces could arise
and God could forbid
        but a man dies
        forgotten     alone,
        forgetting     loneliness

burdened by the last quiver
        nerve trigger
the blood
        the arms
            hold the feet
let go

and the dark gaping gravity pull
        down the well
        of awareness,
        to the darkness,
        the unfamiliarity of the unseen,
        the inoperancy of the brain
cut power station
silent switches lie rusted
the mast and barrier lie torn, scattering
in the gentle shifts of the wind
in the air, in the night air,
the quiet dust settles on the melting body