Vertebrae

Vertebrae, that’s what you are to me,

And all you’ll ever need to be.

Leave me and I’m liquid, I cascade

Onto rotten bones and molten memories,

Onto linoleum floors and hospital beds,

Onto a nonexistent entity of love.

You’re the foundation on which I’m built,

The thesis on which I’m written,

The boat from which the fisherman

Casts his ravenous reel. You’re

The overworked laborer, sacrificing

Your sanctity for the greater good,

For the greater me. You’re the water

To my blood, the blood to my war,

And the war to my world.

Can you clear a path to harmony?

Or will this civilization be lead

Into a drab despair, a decadent decay,

A Neolithic never in which

The clocks are missing hands

And the minutes always fail to speak.