Vague shadows pulling at the fringes of my conscious attention Long fingers trailing across what feels like my forehead but there's nothing there. I am nothing. Curling, grasping fingers shaking me slightly. Like letting loose change fall from the folds of pants pockets. These are the hands of someone I knew, but who no longer exists. Fingernails gleaming in the darkness like moonstones, stroking my hair but leaving no scratches. Only tendrils of energy reaching across an endless dreamscape Taking a little bit of me away each time and leaving a kernel of memory behind in return. Taunting me with the feeling of wistfulness and dreaminess and a little emptiness. And she cried in the forest Sunlight dappling and rotting into the earth. And she left him there Leaving the bones to melt She left to cook things and give people she loved something to eat Swirling world of garbage and wonder These treasured objects we hold dear Are nothing but sparkling trash we call special And the dirt under our shoes Holds a microcosm of jeweled little not-people Bits and pieces of this and that take your pick pick the pickled picklings understand a part of something Understand what you don't understand and fucking think damn it wake up be awake be alive Don't zonk out in the sea of junk Scatter! Be disorganized! Let go! Write a little of this and that and forget and recall and lose it. Let it be lost let it go let it go let it go