My ears are singing in prudish melody
A riff of a guitar, strummed in foolish devilry,
A wonder fills my tender heart and surrenders
My botched little embers of felony, my blunders;

In whole; tucked away, 'tween my headboard and pillow,
I feel every joy, plucked, and threshed, sieved and winnowed,
And instance on instance of happy existence,
Is charred into powder, my heart pounding louder-
And thrown out, beyond the abyss of my window.

And there goes my bliss, in the kiss of the yonder;
This vortex will not kill me, nor make me stronger.

I lie on my bed.
As pain wrecks my head
From fiber to fiber-

A lonely survivor.