Don't You Ache

Sky hung in a sulk

Speeds slapping concrete

Tears live and televised

Don't you ache?

Petals on the roadside

Murder at the bus stop

Words gone tasteless like overdone gum

And enough blades to raise a harvest

Carcass of a building

Every censored cut of mourning

Don't you ache?

The hand you shook is plastering poison

A man you knew abused his position

The currency of winking and shin splints from climbing

Don't you ache?

Post codes sworn by like sell-by dates

White noise where warning was

The ease of war

Forgetting to hear it like piano in the back room of a restaurant

That confident walk that cruelty has like it knows it'll never get caught

Don't you ache?

Don't you ache?

Is there glass in your nail beds?

Is there sand in your throat?

Has the skin between your toes rubbed thin?

Have your knees reached their limits?

Do you meet the day sleepless?

Don't you ache?

The violence of maps and the futures of seeds

Ghost of the surplus, whiskeyed punch-ups

Not enough hands to count, not enough ink to spare

Not enough cloth to spread

The greet in a promise lies baked breakfast

Wet paint on bloodstains

Don't you ache?

Don't you ache?

Don't you ache?

The devil's advocate keeps pulling up a chair and don't you ache?

His client satisfied

Record immaculate