this in a diminishing light
I am too much attached to

myself
whether or not I have money

and at night in the darkness I puzzle
over the sound of a distant machine

my life is defined by such constant sounds
it goes on without

me and within
some trains

sound more pleasant
than others and

I take pleasure in describing the weather
as nil
 

can't verbalize tomorrow
as that

as that
it's 'still' within
 

this is a shadow of an idea left unspoken
I would like to remember a woman I never knew

[   ]         is the photo
it isn't hers

[this]
[this]         is its caption

of the storm drain missing its grate
the severed limbs left to imagine

down the rectagluar sinkhole
and between the pipes

incoming out
going seepage

by gravity fed
toward the river

it
isn't meant to be cute

the memorial wreath today
[insert adverb]         trampled.
 

so begins a disquisition assessing the sliding scale of normality or
before any sentence which I say aloud

I mentally echo its meaning (whatever that may be) to myself in a kind of aside
and so wield a fullsize nutcracker

i.e. apply to my head a calendrical apostasy
crack open the skull

describe the grey muck
all the while conversant with that muck's elasticity

as a linguistic tension between intent
and an inevitable ambiguity
 

parts of a dismembered woman found Monday afternoon
in the river district of Asheville NC

right where I walked the dog that same AM
and said aloud let's get out of here it stinks

later that same day another dog walker peered down into the ground
a missing grate in the curbside storm drain where

the road deadends into a set of concrete steps which ascend
toward a sidewalk along the I-240 bypass

that sidewalk leading up and into the downtown business sector
and there she spotted an arm and hand unit

plus one other hand lacking its arm
hoping she was seeing gloves but knowing she wasn't

making this the second time in two weeks
dismembered body parts were found in this neighborhood

that other time bones and the skull of a woman in the river
though not enough parts yet found to make a whole human

the more recent a place of thick brush and trees and constantly in shadows
often also used as a toilet

being as it is concealed from vehicular traffic
however often serving the purposes of those of us who travel by foot