a salvo

a salvo
a bunch of bits
broken and swallowing
mumbling
apologetic spume

a tepid somnambulist
wide-eyed and raving walking on ice water
slipping and cursing
the Morphean quay

not quite asleep
but truly mad
enough
to beset
the tide

above the breeze blow ledgered scraps of crumpled musics
miserly lamp posts braced for impact with the harbor's sullen cull
waltzing shadows masquerade beneath the flacid hulls
tawny nettles lick the spines of forgotten belfries
awaiting a more midnight hour a darker nell by which to scrawl the rushes hushes hues

i lie alone
my usual manner
in bed
that impecunious
steed

I press one ear
and chase the other
a tapping on the pane

a charcoal figure sleep-walking on a Stygian facsimile
passing the colonnade and falling off of the deed in one fell swoop

as if a tight rope
stretched from the end of one isosceles to another
~twanged
in tune to the score
floating back over the inlet sound

the poor fellow pitched forward seemingly unfamiliar with a number of natural laws
and in one seamless rift was ripped from the record alto - gether
leaving a waif of a thin carbon duplicate in his place just for the paperwork if anyone asked where he'd gone

folded up neatly in a series of commensurate folds
nestled in an envelope and sealed and tucked away
beneath the solvent salvo and the quay
broken and swallowing mumbling apologetic spume