- demens + -ia: Lat.; out of one's mind or senses; around 1806
In the late stages, there may be insistent
anger, petulance, demands. You could fill
a room with ghosts smacking their lips, intent
on writing their names in sugar spilled
on the counter. She'll claim there's only
an empty tent there, its flaps agitating
in wind. A spoon stirs quicksand into a cup.
Moons dangle overhead: and by them, she
is enraptured. They're so magnetic, her throat
wants to be the river they drown in.
But they are like the lover one pursues from
oasis to oasis, just as he slips away again
at dawn. Calling and cajoling, bird shadows
wreck themselves at her unshod feet.
Purveyors of fine poetry since 2003.