sick [2010]

I've not much of a cough anymore

and the fever has receded

but sick still?  yes quite

sick to my blood

coursing corrupt through us

a poisonous divide

sick to my eyes

swimming in syrup shadows

witnessing mutations of hate

sick to my flesh

necrotizing months now

peeling off in thick fetid layers

sick to my soul

without a music to follow

the metronome broken

sick to my core

a slow rot upon my kindness

an affliction of the nerves

I am sick with it all

all of these and those and them

yet

in my breathing well 

I can just make out faint echoes of

                 the loons of 1982

                 the rasp of my Grandfather's laugh

                 the rumble of the neighbor's muffler

                 and a profound cacophony 

                 of me

this is not terminal