his chest splits open in two perfect halves,
bounded
by a coiling line,
to let two hands,

twined and brittle as a dead tree branch,
numb with the cold that nests
beyond all that's bright,

seek a flickering light.

off the crackle of electricity
something malevolent roams

a thing that frights the very cubical essence of his fourteen homes

the body rests, pulsating asleep,
and falls head first, enthralled

the rattle of bones beneath the earth
the dancing of bones within the soil
the creeping of the corpse
weighed down by its own weight
cursed
to never stand again