Portions of How

chasing the slither of futures without footprints. the rabbit. the hat. the symbiosis of illusion. in soft crayons. on hard paper. her magician flaunts his cape. waves his empty wand.

and we are undone.

there's poker in the skin. there's science in the heart. we gamble on the first. Depend on the last. curious victims. brittle fists. blame the sand. for being too small. that it escapes their grip.

choking on the hours. as they stomp down her throat. brass. and cymbals. and drums. a din of years. interrupts her coma.

as he is undone. choking on the grey where once there were colors.

the often. fragile threads attempting to mend. the seldom. the weep of burgeoning holes. that found us close enough. to know what we'd missed.

so many years untanngling the corpses. only to find the knots still intact. and the dead still daed.