The Scale (requiem for MC)

By Adam Steiner

Part I

II

Thump-crack following
Sheaves of light
Scratch away at day’s shadow,
And wore-out the safety
Of the night.

Shivering steel
Anticipates concrete roar,
Before flooding lungs
With shattered verse,
Cracked grin of jagged
Tiles cleaves in half
The abandoned edge
Of home.

A drawn-out aleph
Somersaulted towards sleep,
Interred in murmuring shroud
Of an unmade bed,
A foetal curve softly
Inclines towards death.

Snatched plastic skins
Spill their contents
Of hollow limbs, open throats;
Two left shoes
Sketch minor circles,
Falling with absent tread.

Withered reach
Spans the dead
But fails to bridge
That narrow shelf.

Fading grip
Of final breath
Relents to furrowed
Signatures of life,
Collecting traces,
Ashen butterflies.

Halved departures
Treasure the scale
Of small flesh,
Once in bloom.

Coveting pieces,
Too many
For the human eye
To count.

Part III next weeked.

Click here for an Explanatory Note on ‘The Scale’

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