Varicose Lengths

I am like a dead man walking

Every inch varicose

Every minute inching closer to

…

The vultures are nearing

Do you hear their screeches?

I walk down this desert road

More times in my life

Than I really want to count

The vultures screech above me

Passing overhead but

Staying close like a halo

Circling night and day

I walk down this desert road

And they peck at me sometimes

To satisfy their hunger

A hunger that engulfs them

When they can’t take it anymore

Bit by bit the vultures have taken me

Bit by bit they get hungrier

Bite by bite I am disappearing

And soon there will be nothing left

There will be nothing left for the vultures

And nothing will be left for me

But the vultures always demand more

So I will give them my bones

And hand them my heart

With the varicose veins dangling

Blood dripping daintily

Give and give and give and give

But wait

Where have I gone suddenly?

Where is the person like a dead man walking?

Where are her varicose lengths

Lengths left to nothing but still closer to

… ?