INSCRIBE 19940224
Yellowed pages flutter sporadically in a rank breeze
Chasing the trails of each other with all undue mock haste
Catching and tearing periodically in defoilaged trees
Scattering remnants along the sparce-lit alluvial waste
Fluid strokes of bold blackness grace each tattered page
Each character inscribed was once imbued with a distinctive art
Sparkling snatches of thoughts now morbidly uncaged
Curl in discarded glory though a winsome barren heart
Tales and hopes become fragmented upon harsh limbs outstretched
Snaring in their greedy claws meandering dreams unfallen
Swelling dark veins pulse with disjointed script freshly leached
Releasing powdery scavenged remains to recirculate like pollen
In empty futility an observer stands a multitude of scratches
Paper shorn flesh dripping scarlet empathy for fettered dreams
Mournful eyes reflect the scenery and meanings he attaches
Recording to memory all he can of the swiftly dissolving poetic reams
[© 1994 Joseph Wheeler, all rights reserved]