i’d rather say we are together limping

            towards entropy with our dignity intact

when the rope snaps like Gabriel’s fingers

 

            and pain appears in the morning like

teeth marks in a red apple’s skin

            greedy little machine

 

            bruising from the inside out

bent into the shape               of a sickle

            when I sit down to eat

 

it whispers you will die one day

            little gate chirping in defiance

of the garden it’s meant to protect

 

            i forgive the rust for loving the hinge

accumulating quietly as debt

            igniting a symphony in the soft tissue

 

drums throb               cello’s soft complaints

            i’ve started to kiss each step of the staircase

before i climb it

 

            aging alongside my grievances

a prayer caught in the tumbling body

            of an engine               already chewing its way out