Family

Drop

Drop

Drops

Filter puddles
to an IV Drip sea

The EKG
pumps,
whipping backlash
a led sledgehammer
hits the lever,
ricocheting up a scale
to a Carnival bell
win us a stuffed animal

So this is what it's like
to fly above your
own body, watching
everyone gather
around your hospital
bed, faintly sobbing

Water, water everywhere
but teardrops you
don't drink
the salt will dry
your insides, and pain
would only increase

Lockeisms of religion
"Can I tell you a secret?"
You and I play a game
of Checkers,
black and white sides
& all these human
lives are our pieces.

Waiting for some
rescue crew to release me
from what feels like
prostheses- limbs which
don't swim when thrown
in the deep end

Drown,
float,
drown- don't
resist sinking now

Convulse sweetly
here beside me,
lock your wrist into mine
feel my divinely
running river as it crosses
the Rhine
valley of blood's
stream, on a life-raft
amassed from flotation
device urinal pans
which were last resort
ghetto innovation designed

Who walks the tight
pulse-line between
'to die' and tomorrow
Doctor or Desperado?
which one writes
the deceased list
who grades thesis if all
life time is borrowed?

Tremor
tremble
tremor

hold onto your strength
"come back to us all, my lovely
family wants you
here at your best..."

send 'get-well-soon' balloons
high up to a
golden moon, tell
heaven give us a rain check
we're not ready
just yet
to send amassed roses
on soil to bed
I digress, it's too soon

thump-
thadump
thump,
lungs bring fast burst
a last flee

If you love me,
don't fan the flames- they
only spread, and can
scald your skin worse
catching lightning
in a bottle, almost
never ever works
it may burn, but you
must learn to
let go

falling apart
helps you see,
the ones who are willing to
grit teeth,
lose sleep,
give up their own spleen,
claw, scratch, clasp, bleed,
and never accept
defeat to
keep you whole.



(c) Paul LaTorre 2010