My arms, without
my lips, unkissed
My heart is alive
But I am not living
My dreams, I find,
are just replays of the past
The beauty within them
Stolen from the proofs
My eyes once beheld
The images replicated,
Cut up and frantically replaced
In desperate fashion
To feign that life still goes on

I awake to a vast expanse
Of cold and vacant space
Lying next to me
But, in the mere moments
Between dream and wake
I struggle through the covers
In search of no one
Chasing a ghost
By the scent of
Still lingering perfume
My hope fails again
As I reach the ends
Of the earth
And, looking over the edge,
I find only my bedroom floor
Waiting for my lonely footfall
So that I may begin
My lonely day,
Without and unkissed



© Michael Paul Reed