tentacles reach
from recesses
and cracks
and the fissures of life
betwixt the stones
tenderly
like a love-starved old lady
with purple highlights
whose breath
smells
of false teeth
and the patience
of a death
in waiting
the sky-bound pillow
stretches
and tears
as the sun streams
down
in a cascade of summer
resplendant
leaving spring
a rapidly cooling corpse
smelling faintly
of last year's blossoms
and thunderstorms
that pass
in the night
constellations twirl
in meanders
and mandalas
across the sky
spirographs
of fugitive time
from which we leech a living
even as it crumbles
into pungent humus
and strawberries
turned to mush
jubilant death
and cheerful decay
teeming with life
eating life
here
at summer's end