The Gypsum Ghost
The cedar planks are shivering beneath a heavy heat
I find the residue of logic scattered on the street
A white and powdery infection on the graying wood
I’d look away and run for cover if I only could
The silhouette is resting where the sunlight used to fall
A predatory message written in a clinical crawl
I trace the outline of the shoulder and the swell of hip
I feel the icy condensation on my upper lip
It isn’t just a generic shape of any human frame
It has the jagged signature of your specific shame
The left knee has a divot where the porcelain broke your skin
A map of the catastrophe that let the weather in
The wind is picking up the powder and it tastes like lime
A chemical reminder of the robbery of time
I see the scar upon your leg and then the scar upon the plank
My mind is a terrifying and a liquid blank
I’ll drive the rhythm through the heart of the impending strike
Until I find the center of the anchor and the spike
The house is just a carcass and the porch is just a pyre
We’re burning in the center of a cold and white-hot fire
The outline is a doorway that is opening too wide
There isn’t any place left for a human soul to hide.