An amalgam is forced into existence

In families

Of families

With families

Undulating in side-shows of caring

Fabricated with hateful shadows

Creeping and lurking between voices

While the best words reaching for love

Drip off lips like mercury drops of saliva

In an atmosphere of corroding realities

Dressed up for Sunday

With only the best penmanship

All gifts are taken for granted

By giver and receiver alike

While the carriage is forced off the road

By corrections and expectations shot-through

With the bullet holes of love

Always love  

I love you

Don’t you love me anymore?

Until words fall like burnt umber leaves in autumn

Fragmenting underfoot into a mulch

Bearing parts of the family’s collective heart

Disintegrating into a vapid paste for soil

And more words evolve and multiply

Born on the conveyors at church

Surrounding the pews

With revisionist crucifixions and miracles

That graduate into a mystic fodder

For an alchemy where acid tongues still

Kiss their loved ones

Like nothing happened