Poem a day 2015: 4

Dying Body

It’s becoming more and more difficult

to navigate -- overnight, the streets

change names, switch north with south,

dead end in sudden rivers or stone walls.

Personalities, likewise, slip sideways:

the gentle man you married 20 years ago

develops a seething temper, boiling

under the surface like a hot spring,

and your own (once legendary)

sneaks off to leave you

muddled and slap-happy, sipping

herbal teas by the kitchen window.

Gray skies now and always, no sun

to light the way, no stars to pinpoint

the direction out. And the bedsheets,

too, strap you down, twist you

into sweaty knots, straitjackets

of hot, violent dreams: car crashes,

houses burning around you,

exitless mazes to trap you in your