between you and me
is love;
a catholicon conjured
to escape the brute of reality,
yet it is nothing
but a primitive reaction
to an immediate need
—a need of byzantine complexity,
undefinable,
meaningless.

hail mary! hail caesar!
hail earthlings!
hail the earth beneath which we’re entombed,
and the silence that drowns us,
lest our groans echo forever.
we’re but intrusions
in the midst of oblivion.
like candles besieged by darkness,
we die by the fire
that keeps us alive.