it is the Ineffable Word
choked and sterile
unborn
as it is lodged in my throat
forever
it is the wave that
– rushing –
overtakes me
and yet it is simultaneously the cruel hand unseen
that retrieves me from the shrimp-scented undertow
forcing the foul saltwater from my
stinging bloated lungs
in order to drown me again
it is the scalpel
with its gleaming stainless shine
calm and silent
remorseless as a killer
that abscises my pulsing center
and shreds it into fine strips of flesh
right across the grain
with the detached skill of a meat-market butcher
it is that greedy black hole
lurking in the recesses of the night sky
undetected and
eternally hungry
that crushes all my atoms mercilessly
into one tiny point
of hypnotic focus
beyond the event horizon
a singularity without hope of escape
never to expand again
18 September 2005