THE BOX------------------ photographs

You flay the lid from its sticky resistance
peeling as the fruit it starts to explain
contents in morgue kiss
lie in even piled epitaphs
as your vision starts to vacate the mind
flashing superheroes remind
once
a life
once
a child
a life

love is stranded,tattoed into squares
she smiles
18 years
and your execution is still,
quiet in the museum she kissed

Skinny maned
proud lion
beaten hairless aged
laid on a frigid sky

the joke not read
but sits in broken mirrored tears
photographic
historic in plastic casket choirs

a life
in estate sale
bargain the stranger's voyeuristic aneurism

LONELY SHINGLES
IN ROOFS CHAOTIC COLLAPSE
I loved once
a child once

yet each image
hides behind a missing shadow

A LIFE ONCE