She came to collect

With her piece shoved 'neath her blouse...

She came to collect

Like a cat comes for her mouse...

But the mouse hole was dry,

And there wasn't a sign

Of the boss who had wronged her, and then

Packed her aside

Like a beef shank or brisket

One would hang on a hook...

She came to collect,

And her eyes had that look...

The look of the maimed, or

Deranged, or derailed...

Elise had no shame,

She was hot on the trail,

And left devastation at

Every wrong turn...

No seedling was spared!...

No bridge left unburnt!...

So it was that when her boss,

Luke returned

From his dive

With a plastered blonde skunk

Who could barely limp on,

Though Luke had her resting

Propped up his chin,

This sick swan from Suburbia

Was ready to swim,

But before they could rest

They passed through the gate,

And discovered this mess...

The flames licked the windows!...

They melted the paint...

There was someone inside

Who had

Sealed their own fate

Just by knowing Luke well,

But not well enough...

With the scent of fat searing,

And the gas blowing out

All the red in

Luke's jelly jar suddenly now

Went south...

He ditched the doused blonde

In the bushes and ran!...

She was gin-soaked, and sloshed,

And not part of the plan...

Luke could tell by the red bead

That fell on his ass

That a girl had caught up with him

From his checkered past...

Aye, but who could it be?...

He would not

Breathe to know

The first bullet passed through him

With it's cousins in tow...

Too soon he was only

Hamburger on toast

Six feet underground

Where the maggots

Would host;

In a graveyard beneath

An unmarked slab of stone...

Elise came to collect...

Now, without dial tone,

She fell from the peak

Of her favorite scene

Where she came to watch waves

Crash, and castaway streams;

As most rivers and reservoirs

Met at this beach...

Yes, her swooning green eyes

Were quite brilliant and wild...

So lovely, and almost

Befitting a child

As the orbs caught the light,

And reflected the brine

That her flesh barely kissed,

Just like lips upon wine...

11/28/23

Bunny Villaire

Edit #2

Low tide and I am thankful as I awaken to the sound of the breakers, on my seventh day. Only my head, you see, remains above ground. I sink a little lower by each sunrise. I try to loosen myself from my incarceration, spitting out grains of sand, tasting only defeat. I know that before noon my captors will come and nourish me with a mouthful and with water. Just enough. It's a game, you see. It doesn't matter what I tell them. It doesn't matter how much I plead. They just laugh, like every day.

That twilight I watch the moonrise. Just a sliver of crescent, waxing from the New it was just yesterday evening.

I'm far enough in to have survived the week, but I worry about the rising moon I see each night. As so it waxes, so my life shortens. At some point it will be full and my life over. Then it will begin to wane and the waters recede, to reveal what's left of me. The Moon stays the same but I will change. The tide will come in then out, but I will stay.