Excerpt from "A Recycling Life"

Here is an excerpt from a long poem "A Recycling Life" which will be published in Descant, in the Summer, 2008 issue.

He loved water, and he loved to swim
in icy streams, while she strode along
the bank beside him, shivering, terrified
of what she might have to do if he died;
gulping
cups of hot chocolate laced with brandy,
sucking in
tobacco smoke spiked with cocaine,
her brain cells glittering;
white-hot thoughts, like killer bees
buzzing in her ears, all her little fears for herself
stinging the inside of her skull, swelling
indecision as she paced, waiting
for him to finally clamber up the bank into
the warm embrace of the towel she held for him,
enclosing his thin icicle limbs and frosty testicles,
squeezing him until he gasped, and escaped,
laughing (a little too late), his brittle breath
fogging the cold brutal clarity
of the morning light.