The Fade
All I see are the faded faces and the gray skin hanging loose in all the wrong ways like turkeys' waddles or fish trying to breathe on land Behind their eyes I wish I could see the old memories flickering-- tiny, faded images of outdated fashions hung on young men like rags on skeletons dancing to some hidden beat and sway that has been unleashed by a full moon The fade has set in-- the colors in my face run to the skeleton behind my eyes I slow down as I approach this wall of dawn with its soft rise to beauty A new day with long shadows like dreams The rags blanche as the sounds tip away-- an old record player wheeling down a long hospital corridor And the skeletons, they sway And the images, they fade And the fear, it increases to the slow pulsing beat of a blood boil A berry about to pop and fall Perhaps I should learn to smile like they do Like the horrors of the night that slip into two dimensions but don't ever go away
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