Abandoned Clamp

the vice cannot squeeze any tighter bolts crushed under the benchmark gather dust with nuts and lost screws a DIY manual mocks arrested craft I cannot hold it together much longer limbo has me instead in its firm grip machine oil lubricant is frozen despite heated exchanges with my inner Self short circuited when the fuse box stalled the battery leaked current in the seizure a few flickering brain waves remind me that the power tool work shed is empty a dark hound rests on my sunken shoulder quite happy that I am the one on the leash a personal dog leather collar with spikes commands me to halt all resistance as it only cuts deeper into my lacerated neck while crows pick far too close to my eyes I try to smile in the face of this peril but the grimace does not even reach my face a lonely tear dangles in suspense at the lowest end of a beaten brow and evaporates teased out with no meaning other than fear an out of joint limbo dancer in slow motion a pantomime of hell plays out in my soul epitaphs scribed in smeared heart blood clotted the thrombus waiting for a final kill while an embolus of nothingness fights for instant release on its way to my brain life support fidgets with receding resolve infused with darkness and charcoal ink I try to light what resembles some tinder and ever so slowly an induced coma melts fraught with ashes and suffocating ember but an anthracite embrace is the only option to clamp the vice into limbo rather than myself 21st December 2020