d.o.a.

My gratitude goes to the Blue Collar Review for publishing this one. I don’t know of an online link, but you can check out their home page here.

you’re already gone

when we arrive

my partner confirms this

with narrow eyes

so i box up the defibrillator

and mark your passing

with open palms

you, a perfect stranger

and me

watching blood soak

into concrete with

rorschach potential:

a praying jesus, a busted lip

your eyes gone cloudy

emptied

like wednesday’s trash

your mouth shaped with

unexpected fear

the quiet oh

of a stifled yawn, unwilling

to acknowledge the

caducity of being alive