When I am ash
and they pour me
into the greyfoam sea,
wrap yourself against
the salt wet wind
and turn an ear
to the lies frothing
out their mouths.
They will say
I loved this world
and all the people in it,
that I found beauty
and words to birth it
in the mind.
I tried
oh, I tried,
but the world is a carious tooth,
crag and rot-yellow,
the nerve exposed and raw.
Have mercy.
Have rage.
Have from your silent depths
the good sense
to rip it from the
throbbing mouth of space,
to grip the pliers tight and
crater the bloody gum
so the universe can heal,
and grow a voice that does not
make it cringe to speak.
This poem was originally published under the pen name Gabriel Gadfly.
