I wait
too many patterns
to negotiate
across this gap
between here
and somewhere
other— familiar
tropes etched along
darker rhythms
which throb so
beneath polite
conversation
I wait
for the tremors
to flow from these
threads to prove this
world I’ve created
to be more
than mad hope
for some other
way some other
life to feed upon
some answer
to call my own
I wait
still as if waiting
were answer enough
for the cocooned
questions left dangling
in the patterns—
husks I’ve eaten
empty skins I’ve left
like old suits
frayed along the edges
out of date
and ill-fitting
(December 10, 2016)
subtext 