Gone

Every painful breath I grasp
I feel my innards suffocate.
As fished fish for water gasp
before their skulls collapse and break
every single time I pass
through this your neighbourhood of late.

This city has an aura black.
Every last pathetic morsel
of energy is drained, hacked
from my thin fragmented blood. Aorta
shrivels up and hence the cracked
device ⸺ once a heart ⸺ is thwarted.

I hear ecstatic, happy laughter!
And like the spring of a tiger trap
I make a snappy turn so daft.
I survey children playing. I map
a street filled with couples. A blast
occurs inside me. My thoughts crack.

As I approach your sometime house
I tell myself that you are gone.
Unmoved my body does announce
intent to rebel. I halt on the lawn.
Sight of this building compels pain to pounce.
Peer in the window, retreat, I’m done.