Conformed but Transformed

My voice, caged in quicksand,  

folds itself into rigor mortis like 

an echo turned outside–in; vessels 

ballooned from tetrodotoxin passed  

second-hand from puffer lips to mind.  

ETACIDEM FLES–SELF MEDICATE 

Booze on breath is Dorothy’s tornado 

 (a trigger) 

ETACIDEM FLES–SELF MEDICATE 

Roots, shallow anchored, remain 

tethered to chemical tags encoded 

to bear life from wounds. It’s blood  

that makes atonement1for the 

cards dealt, straight flush into nothing.  

ETACIDEM FLES–SELF MEDICATE 

Red–the story ends, Blue–a rabbit hole 

 (a trigger) 

ETACIDEM FLES–SELF MEDICATE 

Vascular seams zone a barricade, a final 

stake accorded liminal supply of oxygen; 

resulting in land grabs and construction 

of zealots. Slowly a right hand is pressed 

over the heart, a blockage reduces flow. 

ETACIDEM FLES–SELF MEDICATE 

Watershed bleeds a river from martensite 

 (a trigger) 

ETACIDEM FLES–SELF MEDICATE 

_________________________________

1 Leviticus 17:11

Skin bubbles, repulsion flakes like exo

skeleton molted; a conjuring on autopilot.

 Pain boggles the soul, a moon’s half obfuscating

disposition. Darkness crowds me like an eclipse,

no one around to hear the screaming of this lamb.