impenetrable is too mild a word

for the mist that stabs and surrounds

when shoulders turn in supple rage

yet not named as rage nor any other truth

is this chimera, this dissociated dissolving

of soul and self, this diabolos

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no … tiredness is this one’s alias

bone-dry, suffocating, exhausting tiredness

its enveloping smog exuding from pores desiccated

sucking their vapours from smouldering marrow

stoked well with anger’s anger

ferocity’s silence its flames fuelling

‍

O mist, O mist, O wordless one,

you that enfolds all

stabbing and slashing, shackling and shoving

your vile moistness … smearing the walls we inhabit

spraying out damned spots helter-skelter

family-room pox, your spores of suffocation

smothering a child’s thin dreams

of a day for feeling safe and smiling softly

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