abandoned

abandoned,

lying in empty rooms

reeking pungent disinfectant

abandoned,

numb in wooden chairs

staring down empty corridors

hear them drowning?

a vacuum suctioning?

are we sometimes not restless,

confused with this terminal unbroken silence?

abandoned,

lying in rooms

placidly complying,

hands turned to festered flesh,

hands forcing fluids into rigid mouths

with fingers prying open cemented jaws,

and joints,

with machines now stimulating any impulse 

from sluggish spiritless nerve networks,

where messages implode

into lingering pain, 

then slink back into desolation

Bisbee

July, 1979