smooth your hands
over the tabletop
press fingers
hard
into knots
seek to relieve
the pressure
of sculpted
supine death

answer the demands
made
of you
in arrangements
of misery
sequences
of ache

dull in monotony

imagine
rising inflection

instead
nod assent
sip from sweating glass
and unseen
shatter

live now
in remainder
lucid dream
in which
you
summon the characters
required

.