Guilt by Association
Have I bitten off more
Have I strayed too far
Into verdure and azure
Have I lost the one thing
I loved losing
The wind that sings
Through hollowed houses
Of derelict dishes
Standing at attention
The mossy chairs waiting in vain
For curving backs to refill them
The paper labels fluttering off of
Bottles of
Sacrificial wine and stale whisky
Have rancor
And ecstasy
Traded whispers
In locked basements
Have the old smells
Of cooking and yelling
Found a new home
In someone else’s air
Have the mice and rats made truce
In their hair and newspaper shantytowns
Their urine steeping through old planking
Their chatter making the phone lines remember
When conversations rattled the windows
And the whispers of unborn children
Coiled like steam
Around our throats
Have I strayed too far
Into verdure and azure
Have I lost the one thing
I loved losing
The wind that sings
Through hollowed houses
Of derelict dishes
Standing at attention
The mossy chairs waiting in vain
For curving backs to refill them
The paper labels fluttering off of
Bottles of
Sacrificial wine and stale whisky
Have rancor
And ecstasy
Traded whispers
In locked basements
Have the old smells
Of cooking and yelling
Found a new home
In someone else’s air
Have the mice and rats made truce
In their hair and newspaper shantytowns
Their urine steeping through old planking
Their chatter making the phone lines remember
When conversations rattled the windows
And the whispers of unborn children
Coiled like steam
Around our throats
