chastized by a silver tongue 
chopped off, forked and hafted
splitting thru my crackled flesh
as if my bones were meaningless
hung spires of calcium and listlessness
weighted, sunken; seized by indecision

and lo, with such ease 
am I rendered into shapeless vicera 
spilling out and flooding away 
churned down thru eddi and towed under 
into the tepid standing water 
brackish with time: the great, all-permeating traitor

time: the echo of a thousand shrieking fox-eared men 
time: the withering tax carried off my body by swarms of nameless thrumming insects
as if my passing were rumors
spread thin like a net hoping to catch my next of kin
but only catching its own weave.