feeling (the gruel)

how do the dead
feel

how do they see

what
do they understand

I will tell you

they feel pain
when they inflict it
upon themselves

in the manner
of one
who must conduct
a test

a small experiment
of infliction

they see
very well
without colour and hue
to obscure
clarity

no ambiguity exists
in a world
of black
and white

the edges
are sharp

and they know
their own sins

the omissions and commissions

what could have
that wasn’t

what wasn’t
but
if only . . .

the intake
of breath
is background noise
to the thin gruel
of non-being

~