Beggars Arithmetic

I lied and said it didn't matter. I was preoccupied with waiting for the sun. It's always raining. I don't expect it'll ever stop. We work our bridges. As the water rises. We can only go so high. Eventually the drowning catches us.

When we were young it was easy. Cut the flesh and ignore the blood. The scars draw our maps.

But time has its own agenda.

I remember. The names. The faces. The heavy pendulum of hope. As it plots its useless itinerary.

No lies. No truth. Just flesh. Like knotted ropes. Daring us to climb its length.

We're eyes. We're lips. We're breath. As the ricochet of choices careens across our panic.

Angles tighten. Friction accelerates. We cam measure the speed. and the the distance. It's loss that's impossible to calculate.