*

constants are fast & fleeting -
one fierce word in the fumbling air
& order comes stumbling down

desperate, it is, to grab futile points,
& hold time under thumbs still sore from a beating,
to scold & unfold a second so grim
that it shattered what once was you and him

all the delight in this brief life
was held at his frivolous whim -
        my body, my family, my duty, my being,
        my mind, he concluded unworthy of meeting.
he floored me in his honesty
& cast a tarnish on what might have been gleaming

its amazing how subtlety splits one into two,
& meanly flings fresh separates careening
my order, my constant, came humbly down
in his simple shift in meaning