A shred of chagrin

along the jaded cliffs of absurd wretchedness ..

I lay myself down on the edge of industrial fossils;

their perdurable embers cradle a whist interlude

at the beck and call of the illustrious conductor.

The briny sough from clamoring waters eases the woes

of this callous funereal bride, whose bunions are grazed

by fusty sea weed and its yield of decaying effluents.

Wilted vanity coughs out sneers at the

millenial clichés wrought to forge hermetic design

where only bland erosion shines.

Unfathomable: a depth so tight in circumscription and yet

cramped by mammoth dread gazing half-wittedly at you.

The overlook of an endless plain of frosted ashes

that intones a crunchy polyphony in which I discern

my half-caste name.

I do not belong here, but already that epiphany of lucid

insanity crawls away from me.

Anchored on this spot, I lapidify into the scenery -

a wart grows on the temple of the sandstone empress.