599 Redux

in my waking nights

i sit up 

it’s five

there’s a bone around your pearl necklace

and a fire burning in your father’s study

leather and smoke 

filling the nostrils 

her and her son 

return to another northern state

isn’t that what snow does

replaces sins with another problem 

snow piled up on the carport 

who’s to blame

she asks

nobody points fingers i just get restless 

she says 

–

fast forward twenty years

arthritis is replaced with a devil’s name

one morning it changes

with a warm breeze

and she feels okay

she felt okay

her mother coughs downstairs

she smokes in the upstairs bathroom 

–

for so many things

i wish i had better names

what time does to beauty 

it never diminishes my friend