Clockwork

No one held you since 
your house couldn’t afford
feelings though there was a way
you could do everything wrong &

even TV, that tight lover
couldn’t keep you close enough.
In the end, exhaustion
was the right religion.

Yet food came generous
as clockwork & of course
even kids sometimes need
to sleep. So now you signal
another day by feeding full,
fading out, dropping off till

you disappear down into
your dark. Someone wide awake
beside you kills the hours that
crawl away banished by
your unassailable bed.