The coffers coughed
Choked
A crumpled-paper mess
Strewn
Oaths in inky scrawl
Adorn the frosty floor
Where desires grew, collapsed and died
In bittersweet
Ness
Cloaked

The bed lay never fallow
Sheets were fields of ruffled ruck
White and yellow stained
With ploughing love
Muck’s
Ageing tallow

Two spectres stiffen sore
Now the starchy dawn
Arrives
Appear forlorn
Attempt an embrace
Fail miserably
Curse and vow
A fleeting pact to save
What’s left of awe

Kisses pale-aired
Scentless drift
Four arms
Vanish
As they flail about
Clawing back lost
Time
Shared

Blood flesh bone mind
This ever-churning cog
That shreds us bit by bit
Eschewing evidence of any kind

Curtains shedding skins of dusty hair-
fluff
The last to perish
The first to grow
We were not old but babies
dressed in agéd cloth
ever young
never young
enough