hop off/scoliosis and sweaty little fists full of big regrets

hop off

walk from the bus stop up the block
to place a phone call to the devil

you say hello

to hell then go on sweating out
any water previously drank down

(that's all she wrote folks)

you awoke angry and cold, so
you smoke

the freeze bites your knees aggressively before sinking
darkly deep into the marrow of your bones

(where it seems to grow and grow and grow)

the narrow memory of a fading light glows
inside your chest's hollow

you guess this must be the place love lost resides
or, more accurately: where love goes when it dies

keeping back the fear, you see black tears ahead
but forge ahead regardless;

you can't commit a crime that doesn't yet exist,
you think as you slit the voodoo doll's wrist

then grin