i need better people
or better places to hide

trip over favorite
temptations

a vice i say
no to all day
& let in at
night anyway

dark familiar

& familiarity
& habit

are also a kind
of comfort

glean crumb bits
worth biting off
last scraps of
leftover advice

a hole as a crutch
a hole as a means
of separation or
distinction

a hole as some
antagonistic
collector of
artistic integrity

you exist with
a hole easy enough

but what of when
you let a hole
fill with gravity
& unopposed
drain you in slow
spiral increments

back arch stretches on
a rack of consciousness