and we bear down waiting for it, crush of concrete against the forehead. endlessly i drove through the city at sunset, jammed and stalled in canyons and mobs. i loved it, i miss it, coursing through its veins, an infection shot through one arm and slung across its neck. we dreamed of lavish greenery and snow banks toppled over by children. the cold was bitter and whet our appetites, a slick gnawing of knuckles. and at daybreak, careening back home, i was in love with it all, i loved it like madness.

you break
without breaking, without being
broken, you dream
of breaking fists through glass
shards until they become grains of sand
stuck beneath your fingernails, broken
of this breaking, lips for promises
like a lover’s tale told
to you before weeping

you think of this, of scratching the walls, peeling the paint, chewing on dust. it leaves your mouth. more of it, gnawed limbs of trees, a petal caught between the teeth, bark stuck in the throat. slow it down, falling, slumber of the exhausted. had you heard of this before? twilight, morning, harsh sun. and end to all things, an end to despair, an end to dreaming.

here me, hear this. a swallowing, a hum. short of reaching, something like this, sweat off the skin. electric hair, withered on ends. ankles buckling, where were we? start again. over. once over. wet dirt on the heels of. wrists cracked sideways. i never would have believed it. puts you right back where i started. begin again. from the top, where the skin grows thin. never was. as if still dreaming. mildew between the folds, getting torn by the second.

rabid dogs prowl through fog. we dreamt this in caves of ice while the goosebumps danced across our nipples. what a fine thing he was, a mallet without pretension, all blunt force and shatter. she pined away in the corners of bars, spiraling outward all that further away. and through the wind and rain, a steady breathing unlike any other, a pace none of us could match or withstand.