words

breaking pills in half
becomes the way to stay alive,
to hold off the long fingers
of poverty and obsession,
keep the inevitable at arm’s length
for a moment more
and it is all i can do
not to run straight for the sun
with arms like serpents
and skin of flame and angst.

take the words away
and i cease to beat out sparks
from the notched surface of this anvil heart
and i tie off the passage of passion,
left slow and spitting pharmaceutical dust
from between the gaps in my teeth.

i’ll go quiet, i’ll refrain,
i’ll make easy the movement
of others through the tangled canopy
of my savage indictment against the world,
i’ll nod and smile and shake hands
but in my head buried deep beneath
the blanket of medicine fraud
there is only lust and sirens.

-S.C. Martinez