Paregoric and Phantoms

Paregoric and Phantoms,

Unless the earth swells in a lush brilliance;

It is denied, false prophet tickled with beauty behind a mask of lye.

She carried around a pocketbook with loose change in words of innocence:

The soft rapture spills rust,

Effusive dribble etched in a tombstone.

She died on a Thursday morning

In February with fog in her windowpane

And entrusted her pocketbook to me in words of solicitous intent,

Citing motion and decay,

The Moon and transience,

Poetry and Purpose.

I spent the loose change at a Coke machine.