Quiet As Death

"Cocaine is a helluva drug." Rick James  
 
(02/03/07)  
 
It’s so cold  
Should we move  
Closer  
 
It was how she came off, just then  
Or the energy there, between us  
Pulling  
It was the right moment to  
Touch her breast  
She catches her  
Breath  
Dramatically  
Makes me laugh  
 
The rehashed  
Dramas  
What I needed to do, and say  
To gain access  
To her stash  
To her  
All too easy  
 
We pass the straw  
And for 90 odd seconds  
I recall  
What I love  
Is myself  
And sometimes  
Us  
The rush  
And cool waters  
 
"Do we stay in touch with this one  
Or hold it at bay  
It’s clutching limbs and array  
Of artifice  
Of priors  
Makes it unpredictable  
It has defied us"
 
I moan into you  
And wrote the rest  
On your back with a  
Marker  
Upside down and I hope you  
Don’t discover  
Until I’ve left  
 
Or were you the girl I met  
In a place of shadows  
Where sickly sweat  
Was simmering  
On their lips  
Wrapped around their pipes  
 
It’s a throw of the dice, to decide  
How many times you'll call me  
What days I left my cell on  
And sometimes just listening to saved messages  
In tandem  
Laughing at the absurdity  
Reminds me of the alchies  
Rattling the doors  
Of the liquor stores  
Five minutes before opening  
Hoping  
For a quicker fix  
 
And that reminds me of  
The one with the needle  
Grip  
Death crashes in black  
Waves  
Around her eyes  
Which are crawling  
Backwards  
Into her  
Skull  
To show me  
Whites  
I declined to join her  
Winter  
She was beauty's death  
Manifest  
Fetid breath and her kisses  
Are wet  
 
Look, let's not fuck around  
And act like  
There's isn't a lot that we  
Both  
Need  
And demand  
Of each other  
And when I'm up, I'll take you  
High, with me, but  
When I'm low, you must  
Also  
Go there  
That's the deal  
And it's all  
I offer  
 
And if it dies  
Quietly  
All that goes unsaid, but  
Lives, instead  
In us  
It’s what kills me, so  
Forgive me for  
Wanting you to know  
More  
Than was tactically  
Approachable  
To ask  
Or to answer  
 
Otherwise  
I think its best, so  
I'll ask something innocuous  
Instead  
Like  
How do you define a taco?  
It's a legitimate  
Question  
Gentlemanly, in its detachment  
From being personal  
And it doesn't matter, whatever you answer  
Will be delightful  
It won't be  
The fencing or  
If that's how it's gonna be  
Let it be  
Fun  
Is what I like best about  
A new girl  
 
I was true to myself  
You asked for something  
Else  
Fuck yourself  
As well  
 
I enjoyed the leaving  
 
It was about  
Ten  
In the evening  
And I'm  
Hardening, again  
Fast, this time  
Deep  
Like smoke  
And thunder  
 
There’s no reason, for it  
This constant  
Gnawing  
Need  
To fuck and feed  
My ugly  
Habit  
Is crowded  
With force  
Voices of contradicting  
Thought  
A magnitude of pressures  
Leveled at even  
Opposites  
 
It's fucking lunacy  
I witness  
 
Hell is this  
Flesh  
 
I know the routes to guttering  
Founts of fires and ashes  
Stare with blasted  
Expression  
Mouths gaping open  
 
Quiet as death  
Approaches  
So do we  
   
It’s so cold  
And you're beside me  
 
..  
 
Quiet As Death  
By  
Daniel Christensen  
Writing as  
Daniel Shadow Loveless  
 
Copyright © 2007 by Daniel Christensen. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.