Heartland

Threes and twos, and ones and fours 

Supported shelters, pouring cores 

Shoes that fit and steps that pound 

Gaps and measures all abound. 

Refuges framed with cornerstones sore 

All is fleeting, love galore. 

Reality's brimming, the measures overflow 

A series of thrust, on this heartless borough. 

Love galore yet ephemeral all, 

Life speaks to me in a solicitous drawl. 

This town is defunct, thrusted in rigor, 

Sculpted tribute of memories, most disfigure. 

This solicitous drawl that life speaks to me in, 

Vexes my spirit and sears my skin. 

Disfigured memories of besmirched hues, 

Coarse wounds, left free for blood to ooze. 

My skin is marred, my spirit drowned, 

But in the periphery I walk, of an untoward ground. 

With exposed wounds, through innumerable doors, 

I have been losing count on these cutting floors. 

In the periphery I walk, of an awry ground, 

In shoes ill-fit and steps that pound, 

Been losing count, on these cold floors, 

Threes and twos, and ones and fours.

/Heartland, 2019.