Horriflection

Fragmented image stares back

compound eyes of bereavement

perplexity's shards ransack

pieces unevenly in concealment

broken credence loves the dark

fright and tremor in the vacuum

scythe disguised as question mark

buzzing the field of dreams pre-bloom

remainders, ice cubes inside a glass

half-empty abandoned in the taproom

harmony checked out waving a cutlass

tipsy at the entrance of neurosis

emptiness tumblerfuls beget cirrhosis.

Down burning substance puts the dream

fantasy that became a nightmare

saltiness further isolates the bream

scales chipped away to threadbare

heat spiking the roof of the mouth

fiery waterfalls caress the gullet

provisional warmth with cottonmouth

a perpetual hole inside the wallet

swollen vessel, living dead

bottleshapes revolving homestead

spider veins, strips of lace

lavatories head's resting place

feigning innocence while losing face.

Each flushing sound a mile

becalmed watching the sea smile

a tiny pond of dirt and regret

at a captain holding a gimlet

whose crew feelings mutinied

for their master wasn't certified

leading them straight to reefs

heart skips, mind skips

skipper fast asleep at the helm

unprotected from the whelm

waking up slap, salty lashing

screwdriver bores a hole in the head

tears after happy hour thrashing.

Chaos on a ghost ship to extinction

hull riddled with apertures

keel crushed by brute partition

hundred fangs of connoisseurs

black rats down in the hold

hidden into every nook and cranny

hungrily scared remote-controlled

searching for their liquid honey

bitter taste became sweeter in time

paws feel for in erratic pantomime

rodents relish the moonshine drop

thoughts toward desire won't stop

personal tragedy of vermin menagerie.

As the whirlpools deliver torque

incisors sink and pop the cork

bottles spout like whales

lightning strikes the masts

toppled and tangled in the sails

oddment hit by fulmination blasts

caught up in the Bermuda Triangle

weakness, loss and dismay

splinters of shipwrecks mangle

captured by apocalyptic disarray

whence and whereto this cutty sark

upon which adventures did it embark

question trapped in quotation marks

horrible visage on the stormy water

seas don't reflect back when they totter.

Through the portholes a slur

inside somnambulist now astir

disjointed submersible of disaster

swilling gallons to sink faster

on its maiden voyage it got hit

smashed by the tip of an iceberg

long ago, captain has chosen to quit

not spending a unit of erg

so that the tide is turned

the abyss most once more has earned

treasure-trove of heavy chests

chock-full of words unspoken

flushed away with chains unbroken

holding back catharsis it will rest

emesis and a shoulder to cry on

could be a timely life-vest.