Without

If you refuse
to acknowledge me
said the unrelenting loss

who grinned like a deathshead,

I will conceal myself
in the folds
of shrivelled skin,

in the loosening of sinews.

I will hide behind
veiled compliments
and in the hideous kindness
of strangers.

In the depths of smoky rooms,
I will linger
like forgotten music.

I will wait
in gargoyle shadows
when midnight crawls,

among miracles that bloom
in stone carved streets.

And in the whisper of
the near-dawn song

and the loneliness
of footsteps,

you will know my name.