You, the Duke,
as a skeleton, as a roof
are burned in, collapsed.
Empty the bomb
hovering above me
from your grasp.

I am a fortune teller.
I am a second longer.
I am divided from your mind.
I am Dr. Gonzo poised for death.

I remember how to tell the yellow glow of fireflies
from the stars.
I die a second sooner.
I was a second too late.
I know the limits of your sanity.

Look me dead in the eye.
No secret kept, no lie forgotten.

Our memories stand with the frames of my past.
Our topography spreads out as our bodies.
Sing about it.
Sing my death tune
sprawled out on a page.

The towers all around are a second off
when your veins are full of whiskey and coke.
This is where you first told me you loved me.
This is why the grass is always green even on the worst corner of Detroit.

Wipe your drunken smile on your sleeve.
You have been waiting for me.

06/28/2008

Author's Note: The process of creating this poem involved combining several poems from my journal. First, to alphabetize the lines, and then to edit distracting lines out (most of them), and then to make it into a coherent work by means of small editing.

Posted on 07/02/2008
Copyright © 2010 Stephanie Lane Sutton