Dating : Inescapable

Nectar drips sweetly from my maw

a biological bear trap inherited

from ailing lineage

Syrupy pleading

that clings to the bottom of your work shoes

like dried up gum

yet

sucking you into

the double-dealing of the mundane

Garbage, dishes, holidays

easing your way into the sectional

repetitive ticking of the clock

you no longer ruminate on.

Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

Gray hair, regret, denial, repeat

I am a life sentence

RUN

Barbed wire fingers tear at your future

unable to cope with the palpable manifestation of shame

of

you and your cagey commitments

which provoke

every ancestor I’ve stolen DNA from

to pound their fists against the very cells of my framework

wailing

“FAILURE”

In the full-toned murkiness of the night

While you are lost in possibilities

my ancestors and I howl

while the lore of love

and the moonfaced baby we ache for

Disappears.