© 2006 Jane Adam

YOU WERE

stoned all the time over there
everyone was
tranced by exploding vegetation
sinking into hot green velvet
one day you dropped your scissors
in fury's compost  so
you had to rip
stiff cloth by hand from
liquefying flesh gone tropical
sunk in jungle
turning gently unreal but
still attached to crying boy

then so clean
when i knew you
you shimmered
a shadow halo
i believed i would
die if i couldn't touch you

you told me
that each time you'd  watched
someone die
you'd seen a light go out in the eyes
that's how you learned we all had light
in the first place

you told me to come over sometime if i felt like it

i could
smell how you dug
to bury your story, though
smelled dying jungle &
county disinfectant under your nails
as soon as you touched my face

All work is property of Jane Adam.

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