always i rise wet and fall back wetter

but never seem to get any better

than being too much with the world, my toes curled

with lies, my eyes limp lamps to what unfurled

in the hesitance of the unrhymed real.

where to go from here if not there and there

to stare and stare, while i turn blind inside

as dreams are cut short by bounded verse.

~ ajay

9/6/2022