a desperate man's plea,
tastes like a dissonant chord held between the teeth.
if you hollow out his chest, take a spade to the charcoal
lungs, replace the sinews with tightly wound
corkscrews.
a breath held under icy water and never let go,
sharp and thin and neverending.
desperation yields a disfigured disillusionment,
a hatchet to the dissonance,
to the stomach to the guts.
a desperate man’s plea that falls silent,

silent on deaf ears and it will never be heard.