Numb Agony

 

 

               Numb Agony

No burial happened.  You are gone,

Though.  I have now forgotten you except

When circumstance coerces.  A black swan

Comes floating charred from Purgatory, swept

Up mercilessly by a memory

Long suppressed, until a casual chance

Aroma scrapes harshly, an emery

Board forced against the heartbeat, or a glance

Reveals a scene that conjures you, the whole

Of you and everything about us, all

At once, as pitilessly as a pole

Shoved up by Vlad inside me to appal

What beauty you caused there when you were mine.

The relic impales.  Torture is my spine.