and now for something completely different

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I ma-tri-cu-la-ted in the school of hard knocks
she says drunk dangling her bare feet
black with cheap dye into the steam-belled air
after a harsh rain. I’ve been watching dark water
sluice into dark water for hours.
She enunciates with care
dragging her fingers through her hair
and licking her cheeks where streaked eye-paint streams down.
In the water the pink-finned sea bream swim
muscling on slim tails through the tide.
Down the white foot hangs,
a small life traced in the veins,
and the big night blinks its thousand eyes and dreams.
Everywhere small lives are annihilating themselves.
The rain hammers again into our open palms.
On the hours pile until the darkness dies
and the sun burns like the first brand on the pyre.