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
Copyright © Kai Michael Neumann | Year Posted 2020
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