When Love Slips Away

I’ve drummed the grinding hours
before dawn, shipwrecked in music
that intoxicates, skin ripped to shreds

I drank thirsty in the Devil’s Garden
but a rushing, gushing love never satisfied
cannot be refreshed like spring flowers

I’ve had my fill of laughing hands
& heated bodies dancing in mid-air
of trains rolling up to cocked legs

Those numbing nights won’t come
again—sad & sullen as the Mississippi,
a tumbling highway of floating time

The mockingbird with a crooked smile
sings his red-hot dirge before sunrise—
a chilling breeze blows out the glow.