I can’t breath
There is something lodged inside me
Burning
Gasping
Breaking
Blackened tears like nectar pinched
Streaming down through gritted fingers, Pallid Fists
To suckle the beast who fills my breast
I can’t breath
.
I can’t breath
Free the pang of ancient hunger
Gnawing
Tearing
Spiting
Darkness stirs with reason’s passing
Limbering quick the sorrow wakens
To bring taint upon the cracking lips
I can’t breath
.
Why can’t I breath
There is something born of me
Learning
Growing
Crawling
Eyes with fire bleed broken sockets
Blind the taste of retched promise
To sweetly fill the voided echoes deep
I can’t breath
.
I just can’t breath
Rotted jewels between my teeth
Consuming
Squirming
Breaking
Like glass over my tongue
The devil’s fire is in my gums
And I want to spit the acid away.
I can’t breath
.
Why can’t I breath
Eyes with vacuum lure the abyss
Sucking
Me
Down
Black blood warms the ancient graves
Flow once more to curse my heart
Oil-stains of hissing demons dance
I can’t breathe
.
Why can’t I breath
Gasping out into the hollow places within
Filling
Thrashing
Expiring
Peel away the labels and the masks
Squirming deep the worms beneath
Tighten their grip on my skin.
I can’t breathe
.
Why can’t I breath
Flowing sadness venial tracings
Scaring
Biting
Deepening
I live to pick away the scabs
Dazedly wanting to dull the ache
Lovingly sighted my blood is soothing
I can’t breath
.
I just can’t breath
The Heavens roar to time my anguish
Bleeding
Breaking
Grinding heart
I want to pluck the flesh from bones
To taste the marrow of my skin
To kill the devil deep down, within
I can’t breath
.
I just – Can’t breath
Woven fate of lucid anguish
Harming
Haunting
Hating self
For the unshackled monster of blood and bone
That takes over my mind and moves my hand
And strikes both friend and foe down
I can’t breath
.
Why can’t I breath?
Hope long skewered and burned on pyres
Sacrificed to
My lord
My hate
And I, selfish martyr who seeks redemption
Vows whispered in silence to which relate
By the blood of the fallen, I sealed my fate
.
.
“Tomb” © John Anthony & Jonathan Dowdle. All Rights Reserved.
.
- I “met” Jonathon Dowdle on Myspace back in 2005/6. He was a member of my poetry site on that forum called “The Written Word”. We became internet friends, and he always wanted to work with me. This poem was the result of that collaboration. Jon and I stayed in touch over the years and whenever he was down he always reached out to me and we would talk. Like so many wordsmiths, he had a dark side and constantly fought for balance on the Delicate Edge. Sadly, Jonathon Dowdle was killed in September of 2019 as he walked along a road near his home. Rest in Peace Jon.
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The Delicate Edge 