"This is what you owe the dead." Again and again Tendons stretched and strangled Face poured flesh from head A Family's ties are mengled like Mother falling out of dead This is what I know: Blue faced efforts that fail to reveal the color of her shadow My sense caught in a stone's throw and cleaner slates That keep track of all the baggage I tow Scrape wisdom of the tomb Early morning scars from masks shed in favor of never, or is it forever? A mourning lost to secrets I'll never erase