On The Sleeve

Untransmissive isolation

Static —

Whispers through the airwaves

Secrets —

That can never be known

My hands are tired

My body is weak

My smile no longer remembers —

How to rise

Yet, I hold it,

Still —

In the riven quiet

Of the fathomless dark

Calmly floundering —

In my perpetual descent

— The unsteady meter —

Of my heart —

Striking the bruised recesses

Retained within my remodeled cage

— Calloused seams — 

Etch my senescent pelt —

Intersect the treads of my shadow —

Score the neural contours of my memory —

— A cavernous keep —

My eyes

Swirl with visions

Sights

I cannot bear to see

Voices

Invade my mind

Words

I did not speak

Hallucinatory derisions

Sounding

On my drums

Untransmissive Isolation

Keep me away —

From everyone

As I maintain my descension

Tartarus’ obsidian stream

I’m confined to holding on

To the beating in my chest

Its arrhythmic thrum is cracking my ribs

Breaking me apart

Wicking across the pages

My bloody nib —

My exsanguinated heart.