Something Died Here

12/26/2025 | happy terrible holidays

sick as a dog
puttering around my apartment
wasting time and wasting away
waiting for a snowstorm
but in my head I’m locked in a cabin…

miles west of California
scaling cliffs, sending prayers
unlinking my harness while
I fall miles down
with not a soul around

collecting broken bones
kissing the teeth of this illness
burying myself in its fur
underneath the snow
miles below
a collection of polished bones

shaking hands by the fire
pink skin, glossy black eyes
a tall, pale man slinks in
I hold close his old bones
his black tongue in my mouth
breath reeking of death

skeletal fingers wrapped around my wrist
while I peel back the boards
revealing an inkblack voidhole in the wall
fingertips tracing its rim
peering in
stagnant air around
stale voice in my ears
white skin, blue lips

swirling flurries
miles and miles of obliterated footprints
dead skin cells
layers flapping in the wind
ashes in the center
embers disappearing
prospects disappointing

silence in the white
a tall, pale thing
sliding boots on ice
screeching blade dragging
a shovel (his shovel) carving a hole
whispering tunnel in the wall

dissecting the hovel
bootblack eyes covered by skin and white
secrets underneath
an effervescence in the wind
an evanescing legend in his mind
centuries pass

wood and blood creaking
teeth scattered
something died here, oh, yes, 
Something died here.