we need the freckles on the twenty third floor

once she’s gone

        she’s gone

no more asking for the straw

             the autopsy was brief and uninvolved  

all topics from the near wall

                     seemed a bit too tall

 to discuss    among those gathered close

         isolation breeds isolation

and only part of it is administration

         the talks are held up by greed and frustration

           and the gaps between differing ideas of what constitutes

                 repayment

the words find me

 i don’t look for them

       but i do know which ones to pick

   and which ones to leave lie   it takes little more than a lifetime to decide

       that yellow turned red    around eleven thirty   that night

she said she thought he died

       it made of fist of her insides

   now deprived of hope

and   home

     suddenly alone

the question comes

what’s the difference between comfortable and defensible

      my blood is thin

i spent most the month of july with a blanket ‘cross my knees

   while every other motherfucker was complaining about the heat

heat worth holding    

                                             trouble looks       interesting 

                   meant in both senses of the word 

                                    as if there are 

                                                      two

and two

                                                               alone

           let it ride   let it fly     i could use the shut-eye

                           i could use 
                                            the warmth

                 we need the freckles on the twenty third floor

The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch  1642

by Rembrandt van Rijn