From the Next Room

I must begin

Draw curtain after curtain yet these particles get in

The brake light snake has parted for another broken-hearted nomad

Lost before he started, no matter when

 

A lovers on the road

Lover in the rain where the white eyes wink past

Peppered on the road

The meanders of the drain

All the long times, short times

And the light was off

And the light was on

And I watched you power down

And then there was no light

And I was back inside

And I felt the ageing

 

Oh

It's coming through the walls

From the next room

 

It has never been my view

Only to elicit pain it keeps its changing

And yet I don't die, just sit back a way

(And I know, in the next room, all the ends are tied

every passing slide)

 

And

I am at the moment of watching your light go

 

I trace it. You rise out. A pattern all scrambled up

And now you're an echo, rerunning insensibly slow

Re-passing time

Re-passing all of your actions, all your infractions

A one howl elegy

 

And I watch you power down

Ricochet between sins and virtues

Keeping count in the next room