Fever and Chills

Fever and Chills History writes itself invisible pens find surfaces unknown private life public life fever and chills sleep together heaving corrosive air from colorless lungs hearing but their own moans their own cries of ecstasy how loud how soft From boardroom to bedroom clinging to manufactured essence flesh bleeds with century's plague ignoring contagion's history past nurturing instead weed gardens of delusional orchid and rose These darkened windows aloft where seductive airs of passion molt fail to hide the pores of covetous fantasy gluttony's vaporous hydration ready to flake While all about Ether's wake delivers sirens and horns delivering ambition's twisted celebration of death one less emergency burden one more dodging of tragedy's awareness the One-Percenters' plunder destined to erode like sand castles knowing little of ebb's inevitable tide How courageous for some To incandesce amidst shallow atmospheres even as infirmity goes unnoticed by those embracing fleeting moments momentarily exchanging covers enfolding profit reports for the silk and satin kind king size queen size makes no difference For these of duplicitous breath life becomes but a fool's gold enlaced treadmill unquenchable thirst crossing windblown lips insatiable and voracious spoils body upon body The sickness passes its virulent infection its waste-basket poisons from all too anxious glad-hands offering but copper-nickel-dime pilings greed's weed defoliation of flowered chameleon hope trickling downward battling updrafts of street despair as sidewalk survivors reach skyward embracing the floating pocket change tearfully As misery rages below this citadel high above protects blind-weary subjects behind penthouse glass sitting together sipping cognac turning up the Bang & Olufsen reading sonnets they know nothing of awaiting the recurring sirens and horns Like children beneath pup tents of fantasy they scurry close securing their panic denying the dark Yet They too will one day know virulence and await their own fever and chills